In collaboration with the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), the UN Development Program, and the UN Office for Project Services, India has successfully reconstructed 50,000 dwellings in Nepal’s Gorkha and Nuwakot districts.

The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu held a function on Monday to commemorate the occasion, at which Namgya C. Khampa, Deputy Chief of Mission, announced that the Owner Driven Reconstruction Approach adopted by Kathmandu has resulted in the completion of 50,000 private houses, as pledged by the Centre in New Delhi.

Sushil Gyawali, the Chief Executive of Nepal’s National Reconstruction Authority, was in attendance, as were the Mayors of Gorkha and Nuwakot districts, as well as other representatives from Kathmandu-based donor agencies.

To speed up the restoration process, the Nepalese government established the Nepal Reconstruction Authority (NRA), whose major goal is to quickly repair the physical damage caused by the enormous earthquakes of April 25 and May 12, 2015, as well as their aftershocks.

The UNDP and UNOPS signed an agreement with the Indian government in March 2018 to provide socio-technical facilitation and consultation (STFC) services to earthquake victims in four Indian cities and 14 rural municipalities.

For this, India had committed $150 million as a post-earthquake assistance package on the housing sector to provide financial and technical support for the reconstruction of 50,000 beneficiaries, including a $100 million grant and $50 million under our Fourth Line of Credit.

Besides this, India is also working with the NRA for the construction of 71 education sector projects, 132 health buildings, and restoration/retrofitting of 28 cultural heritage sites in a total of 11 districts of Nepal affected by the earthquake of 2015.

Altogether, 8,979 people lost their lives and 22,309 were injured in the 2015 earthquakes.

Hundreds of thousands of private houses, government buildings, schools, health institutions, and historic and archaeological heritage sites were damaged.

According to the National Planning Commission’s Post Disaster Needs Assessment, nearly $7 billion worth of physical property was damaged.

Following the quake, the Nepalese government convened a donor meeting, at which India promised the largest sum of $1 billion in grant and loan funding for the rehabilitation effort.

The overall cost of reconstruction is anticipated to be $9.3 billion, according to the NRA’s Post Disaster Recovery Framework from 2015.

(With IANS inputs)