Quake-hit Nepal unveils reconstruction plan, costs to exceed 8 bln dollars

Nepal's government on Thursday unveiled a five-year work plan on post-quake reconstruction and rehabilitation. Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli unveiled the plan which provides outline on how reconstruction works would be carried out.

The prime minister said that the post-disaster recovery framework was introduced as a guideline to the government, non-government organizations, private sectors and donor agencies.

The five-year road map comes a few days after the government unveiled the policy and programs for upcoming fiscal year focusing on speedy reconstruction.

The Post Disaster Reconstruction Framework provides detailed guidance on the reconstruction policy framework, institutional framework, implementation arrangements and financial arrangements that the government will follow over the next five years.

The estimated cost for the overall reconstruction stands at Rs 838 billion (8.37 billion U.S. dollars). The new budget is higher than the previous estimated budget of Rs 706 (nearly 7 billion U.S. dollars) as estimated by Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) in June 2015.

Addressing the Parliament session, the prime minister said that the budget has been increased after a detailed study on the number of damaged houses.

More than half-a-million houses were damaged in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake of April 25 last year that killed nearly 9, 000 people and made around 23,000 injured.

The framework includes outlines of 20 thematic plans to be carried out for the reconstruction under the sectors social, productive, infrastructure and cross-cutting.

The government has aimed to reconstruct all the damaged houses within two years and government buildings, health centers and hospitals within three years.

Also on Thursday, the prime minister briefed the representatives of international community and donor agencies about the post disaster recovery framework. Nepal had received the commitment of financial assistance of 4.1 billion U.S. dollars for country's reconstruction during Donors Conference held in Kathmandu in June 2015.

(APD)