Rs. 600 bn needed for remaining reconstruction

Kathmandu, Sept. 16: The country needs about Rs. 600 billion to complete the remaining work of post-quake reconstruction, according to the estimates of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA).

“Approximately, Rs. 336 billion will be spent in the reconstruction of the physical structures damaged in the devastating Gorkha Earthquake in 2015 by the end of the current fiscal year 2018/19,” Chief Executive Officer of the NRA Sushil Gyawali said in a discussion with the representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Sunday.

The reconstruction body had spent Rs. 22 billion in the first year of the reconstruction, Rs. 49 billion in second year and Rs. 114 billion in the third year.

The size of the reconstruction budget in the current fiscal is Rs. 151 billion.

According to the Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA) conducted by the National Planning Commission in the immediate aftermath of the quake, Rs. 669 billion budget was needed for the reconstruction but the Post-Disaster Recovery Framework (PDRF) prepared by the NRA in 2016 projected Rs. 838 budget for the rebuilding of the physical structure in the next five years.

However, the total size of reconstruction budget estimates was increased to Rs. 938 billion due to the increased amount of housing and retrofitting grant and other associated costs.

Gyawali said that the reconstruction body was holding discussions with the development partners to arrange the additional resources required in the post-quake development.

After a couple of month following the disaster-struck the country, the government organised International Conference on Nepal’s Reconstruction (ICNR) where bilateral and multilateral agencies and other International orgnaisations pledged Rs. 343 billion support to Nepal.

The PDRF said that the budget would be spent in the areas such as private housing, public buildings, tourism, health, industry, education, heritages, disaster management and employment generation initiatives.

But the government has not signed any agreement for all pledged money- it is yet to sign an agreement for Rs. 81 billion support pledged at the ICNR three years ago.

Gyawali said that the NRA would spend the allocated budget and would run initiatives to arrange additional resources including the money pledged at the ICNR.

IMF Chief of Mission Geert Almekinders appreciated the progress that Nepal made in terms of reconstruction and said that the expenditure made in the post-quake development would play an important role in the economic progress of the country.

Published in the Rising Nepal daily on 17 September 2018.