Post-quake reconstruction: 337,319 houses rebuilt

-Purna Prasad Mishra
Kathmandu, December 25: A total of 337,319 houses damaged in the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake have been reconstructed, constituting 45 per cent of the total number of agreement signed with the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), the officials said.
The NRA said that 233,343 other houses are under-construction.
At a news conference organized on the occasion of the third establishment day of the NRA on Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer Sushil Gyawali said that 32 per cent houses of the quake-affected families are under-construction after the housing grant agreement. “The number of completed and under-construction houses has reached 570,662 which is 77 per cent of the total housing grant agreement. This achievement should be taken positively amid harsh situation,” Gyawali added.
Altogether 884,800 beneficiaries have been surveyed for the grant from the survey and grievance management carried out following the earthquake. Of them, the number of beneficiaries for reconstruction is 822,909 while remaining 61,891 beneficiaries are identified for retrofitting. It is said that 90 per cent of the total beneficiaries have signed the contract.
The NRA said that the number of beneficiaries signing the grant contract has reached 742,165 and 99 per cent of them have received the first tranche of the amount.
However, the number of beneficiaries taking second tranche of amount is just 523,373, the NRA shared. It is said that 45 per cent of the beneficiaries constructing private houses have received the third tranche of the amount.
It is said that 436,911 had registered the complaints after they were missed in the list of the beneficiaries.
As per the legal provision, those having reservation in the complaint management of the NRA can lodge their petition in the review committee. So far, 3,212 petitions have been registered in the review committee and order has been issued to probe the evidences of 582 cases, CEO Gyawali said.
On the occasion, Gyawali said that system has been developed to release the amount of the beneficiaries through the banking system to ensure transparency. The beneficiaries would receive altogether Rs 300,000 in three tranches including Rs 50,000 in the first, Rs 150,000 in the second and remaining Rs 100,000 in the last installment.
Likewise, the NRA said that around 80 per cent of the damaged school buildings were reconstructed so far while the number of the government offices reconstructed crossed 95 per cent. RSS