NRA to train 60,000 on construction

Kathmandu, Oct. 15: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has said that the post-quake reconstruction might hit a snag due to the shortage of construction workers.

More than 100,000 masons and carpenters are urgently needed to carry out the reconstruction works.

But, it is estimated that there are only about 40,000 masons and carpenters in the quake-hit areas.

Those construction workers lack the know-how on the quake-resistant building or construction measures.

However, NRA chief executive officer Sushil Gyawali said that the reconstruction body had planned to produce about 60,000 construction workers by the end of current fiscal year 2016/17.

According to the NRA, it was planning to build a model house in every ward of the quake-damaged village and municipalities.

 These houses will be constructed in the course of training to generate the skilled manpower required for the reconstruction works.

The trainees of masonry, carpentry and other skilled based training will build the model houses.

It has trained about 15,000 construction workers so far.

The devastating earthquakes in April and May last year completely damaged about 800,000 houses and 200,000 thousand houses were partially damaged.

Similarly, 7,923 school buildings, 1,100 health facilities, 700 heritages and about 6,000 government building buildings were damaged in the tremors.

Therefore, if construction works begun simultaneously in all the districts, the country might need more than 2 million construction workers.

As the monsoon is over and about 450,000 households have received the first installment of the house reconstruction grant, Rs. 50,000, house reconstruction would be expedited which will demand more construction workers and construction materials.

The NRA has proposed fixing the minimum wage of the construction workers so that the youth from other districts and working abroad can be attracted to the reconstruction works.

“Our main focus is to train the local people on construction skills. This will ensure that the trained skilled manpower involves in the construction work and will create more employment at the local level,” said Gyawali.

He urged the government to ensure that there would be no shortage of the construction materials specially stones, sand, bricks and timber.