Another damage survey from March 29

Kathmandu, Mar. 15: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) is all set to commence the fourth round of post-quake damage assessment survey of the private houses from March 29.

The fourth round survey is also a fact finding initiative of the NRA being conducted to address the complaints of the quake-affected families, who were not included in the initial and revised beneficiaries’ list.

The reconstruction body has decided to carry out the assessment in all 32 quake-hit districts. The data and information will be collected with the help of the engineers who were already deployed at the local levels.

NRA Spokesperson Pitambar Ghimire said that the survey would only assess the houses that registered complaints demanding their inclusion in the beneficiaries' list and that were missed out in the previous surveys.

According to him, families whose houses were excluded in the survey last year and those who registered complaints in the respective local bodies within the given deadline will be reassessed.

Joint-Spokesperson and coordinator of the survey programme Manohar Ghimire said that about 550 engineers would be mobilised in the field to collect information.

“We aim not to leave behind any eligible quake-victim. So, we are coordinating with the local bodies who will recommend the households and the monitoring will be conducted in the presence of local representatives,” he said.

The ward office will make the initial assessment and recommend the households for the housing or retrofitting grant to the municipality or rural municipality, and the local body will approve the recommendation from the ward office after getting it verified from an engineer.

People in the quake-affected districts can get more information from the NRA’s toll free number 1660-01-7200 and 98015-72111.

It has recently conducted a 2-day training to prepare a team of engineers and communication experts that were working in the local levels of the quake-hit districts. They will train surveyor engineers in the districts.

The survey will be concluded by May 14.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 16 March 2018.