Saudi Arabia to provie $30 million for post-quake reconstruction

Kathmandu, Dec. 14: Saudi Arabia Thursday agreed to provide a loan assistance of US $ 30 million (Rs. 3.9 billion) to support Nepal’s post-quake reconstruction efforts.

A meeting of the Fund for Development of the Saudi government and the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) officials had inked the agreement for the loan support.

NRA deputy spokesperson Dr. Bhishma Kumar Bhusal said that the reconstruction body had proposed to utilise the amount in the reconstruction of private houses, schools and health institutions and had already written to the Ministry of Finance to hold further negotiations and finalise the loan.

The Saudi officials had requested the NRA to propose a list of projects where the loan would be utilised.

Joint secretaries Yam LalBhoosal and Krishna Dawadi and Under Secretaries Dr. Bhusal and Binu bBajracharya Kunwar represented the NRA in the meeting while the Saudi side included Chief Engineer Abdullah M. Al-Shoabi, Regional Manager of the Operation Department of the Fund for Development Nassir AlKasabi and Project Manager Saeed Al Mshaikhi.

Meanwhile, the NRA statistics show that the number of earthquake victims receiving second installment of the grant to build their house destroyed in the devastating Gorkha Earthquake 2015 has reached 104,483.

Additional 24,307 households have been approved for the grant.

NRA had fixed the deadline of mid-January 2018 for the second tranche to the households that received the first installment of the grant by mid-January last year while mid-July 2018 has been set as the deadline for the third tranche.

“The number of beneficiaries has increased due to the deadlineset for mid-July. This data show that the rebuilding of private houses is now speeding up after the end of festivals and harvest season,” said Bhusal, spokesperson of the NRA.

The beneficiaries can claim the second tranche only after a technician approves the construction of Damp Proof Course (foundation) to ensure earthquake-resistant construction. Similarly, the beneficiaries are entitled to claim the third tranche after raising the pillars but before the roofing.

Similarly, the number of families receiving the third installment of the grant has reached 33,425.

Until now, 651,792 beneficiaries have received the first tranche out of 767,705 beneficiaries eligible for the government housing grants.

Construction of about 73,655 houses is completed and 174,622 are in under construction.