A webinar has commenced for holding interaction on and archiving the outcomes made in the post-earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation.

The program has been organized to discuss the preliminary draft formulated in course of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) preparing its institutional compendium as well as to collect feedback and comments from the main stakeholders, experts and practitioners.

Inaugurating the program, NRA Chief Executive Officer Sushil Gyawali said the suggestions and feedback given by experts and practitioners regarding their experiences related to reconstruction would be very useful.

NRA had been preparing for organizing an international conference for the exchange of experiences but it would be somewhat delayed due to the coronavirus infection.

NRA Secretary Ram Krishna Sapkota expressed the commitment to move ahead the reconstruction in the days ahead by correcting the past shortcomings.

NRA is preparing working papers on seven various thematic sectors incorporating the experiences and learnings from the five years of the post-earthquake reconstruction in course of establishing its institutional memory.

Executive Member Dr Chandra Bahadur Shrestha presented a paper on reconstruction of private houses. While doing presentation, he said some problems have been faced due to the multiple-ownership of houses built on small land plots in the urban area. It was informed on the occasion that the reconstruction of houses of those enlisted in the list of retrofitting beneficiaries has been slow.

NRA informed that reconstruction of the private houses has reached to the final stages in the rural areas. Eight hundred thirty four thousand 911 earthquake victims were included in the beneficiary list, out of the one million 37 thousand 291 houses surveyed and damaged by the Gorkha Earthquake on April 12, 2015.

Of those included in the beneficiary list, 77 thousand 325 have been certified for retrofitting. So far, 791 thousand 787 beneficiaries have carried out the grant agreement.

Of them, 785 thousand 78 beneficiaries have taken Rs 50 thousand as first instalment while 677 thousand 557 have taken the second instalment amount after constructing the foundation of their houses.

Similarly, 606 thousand 505 beneficiaries have taken the third instalment of the housing grant after completing the construction.

The beneficiaries enlisted in the list of beneficiaries so far have to take the first tranche amount within December 30 by signing grant agreement within December 15.

They have to file application at the concerned local level to certify within February 12, 2021 after completing the foundation work from the first tranche amount.

Application should be filed at the concerned local level within mid-May, 2020 for third tranche.

The second working paper related to cultural Heritages Reconstruction has been presented.

Presenting the working paper, Director General of the Department of Archeology, Damodar Gautam, expressed commitment that all infrastructures damaged by earthquake would be reconstructed within next two years as more than half earthquake-hit infrastructure have already been reconstructed. The earthquake has damaged 920 heritages in 32 districts.

Of them, 500 heritages have already been reconstructed so far. The Authority has been preparing institutional compendia of six thematic areas.

Discussion would be held on a thematic chapter related to public building and infrastructure today itself. Three remaining thematic chapters would be discussed on the second day, Saturday.

Officers and representatives of different development partner agencies, international experts, experts and practitioners, representatives from civil society and non government offices are participating in the webinar.