Earthquake museum on the cards

 Kathmandu, Jan. 14: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has started homework to establish earthquake museum and research centre of international standards.

Earthquake memorial parks will also be constructed in Gorkha and Sindhupalchowk districts, NRA Chief Executive Officer Sushil Gyawali said in the National Reconstruction Consultation Council (NRCC) meeting chaired by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at the PM’s Residence, Baluwatar on Monday.

He said that collaboration among the three levels of the governments would be forged as per the constitutional arrangements on disaster management and knowledge, skill and experiences related to reconstruction would be shared.

"We have started a process to handover information system at the NRA to the federal, provincial and local governments," he said.

Gyawali said that disaster risk mapping would be executed at every local body and the information would be used as the foundation for the land use plan and building code preparation in the respective local unit.

Special support programmes to the municipalities and rural municipalities are in the offing to implement the national building code.

According to the NRA, private house of the beneficiaries, who received the first installation of the housing grant by the end of the last fiscal year 2017/18, would be reconstructed by the end of the current fiscal year.

Similarly, compliant hearing and re-survey would be completed by mid-March this year and the first tranche of the grant would be distributed to all by the end of the current fiscal year.

It also said that reconstruction of private houses would be completed by the next fiscal.

The meeting started in the evening and was attended by the former prime ministers, deputy prime ministers, ministers, lawmakers from the districts severely hit by the quake and experts.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 15 January 2019.