India to support reconstruction of 50,000 houses in Gorkha, Nuwakot

KATHMANDU, March 8: The Government of India is supporting reconstruction of 50,000 houses in earthquake affected districts of Gorkha and Nuwakot.

An agreement to this end was signed on Thursday between the Indian government, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in order to expedite the post-earthquake reconstruction process of Nepal.

Under the agreement, the government of India shall provide 16.2 million US dollar for rebuilding the houses in the two districts. The government of India is partnering with the UNDP and UNOPS for providing Socio-Technical Facilitation to 26,912 home owners in Gorkha and 23,088 home owners in Nuwakot districts.

Socio-technical team from UNDP and UNOPS would assist home owners to reconstruct their homes as per the Government of Nepal’s earthquake resistant norms. They would also guide them through the inspection and certification process at different stages of construction so as to enable them to have access to various tranches of housing grant.

The Partnership agreements were signed by Dr Ajay Kumar, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of India, Kathmandu, on the behalf of the Government of India, and by Renaud Meyer, Country Director, UNDP, Nepal and Sanjay Mathur, Regional Director, UNOPS Asia Region.

Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador of India to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri and National Reconstruction Authority CEO Yuvaraj Bhusal opined that the financial assistance would be a huge relief in expediting reconstruction works of Nepal.