NRA to conduct another damage survey

Kathmandu, Aug. 6: In a bid to address the grievances of the quake-affected families which failed to see themselves in the beneficiaries’ list, the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) is all set to conduct damage survey yet again, after more than two years and three months of the devastating Gorkha Earthquake in 2015.

The reconstruction body said that it is commencing the survey of quake-damaged houses, which weren’t included in the verification survey last year, from August 10.

The government has been long facing pressure from the complainants and political parties to include about 207,500 households of 14 districts severely hit by the quake in the beneficiaries’ list.

The post-quake damage survey conducted by the government had identified 749,807 families eligible to receive the house reconstruction grant of Rs. 300,000 while the Post-Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA), conducted by the National Planning Commission in the immediate aftermath of the quake, had found about 900,000 houses damaged in the tremors.

NRA Spokesperson Yam LalBhoosal said that the survey is being repeated in response to the compliant registered at various government offices at the local and central level and the NRA.

“We are mobilising 332 engineers to the field. They will visit every household,in the 14 districts, who registered their grievances to get them included in the beneficiaries’ list and re-examine the condition of their house,” he said.

The NRA and Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS)will jointly conduct the survey.

The reconstruction body Sunday launched three-day training for those engineers,in Kathmandu.

According to Bhoosal, the field survey will be completed in two phases.

In the first phase, the survey will be conducted in eight districts – Okhaldhunga, Ramechhap, Dolakha, Sindhupalchowk, Kavrepalanchowk, Nuwakot, Rasuwa and Gorakha.

About 168 engineers are being trained for the survey. They will be mobilised in those eight districts.

Similarly, survey in remaining six districts – Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Sindhuli, Makwanpur and Dhading – will be conducted in the second phase, from August 14. 

Training to 164 engineers for the same will begin from Thursday.

The reconstruction body targets at completing the field survey in all districts by September 16.

According to the NRA, of total complainants81,082 houses will be re-examined while 52,278 houses which were not included in the erstwhile surveys will be surveyed.

The reconstruction body has already addressed the grievances of 39,097 families by including them in the beneficiaries’ list while 13,565 households have received grant for retrofitting their houses.

Issuing a press statement on Sunday, the NRA said that the data collection works will be conducted by the engineers and local Social Mobiliser’s Team.

The surveyors will use tabs to collect data and feed it online to the server in Kathmandu.

The NRA aims at clearing all the complaints by mid-October.