KATHMANDU, April 24: As many as 223 cultural heritage sites damaged in the devastating 2015 earthquake have been reconstructed so far.

Of them, 161 were reconstructed through the Department of Archaeology, 20 through Pashupati Area Development Trust and 42 through other agencies.

Likewise, 205 other heritage sites are being reconstructed under the DoA and 221 more through other concerned authorities, according to the spokesperson of the DoA, Ram Bahadur Kunwar.

It has been estimated that the reconstruction of all the heritage sites would cost Rs. 10 billion. So far, 1.8 billion has been spent, he added. RSS

By Shristi Kafle

SINDHUPALCHOWK, Feb 20: For 23-year-old Bishal Tamang, who lives in a village some one hour’s walk from the Nepal-China border point, working in a furniture factory in Malaysia amid hot temperature with a little income was a tough job.

After the closure of the Tatopani-Khasa border point following the devastating earthquake in 2015 which severely destroyed the whole village, school drop-out Tamang left for foreign employment to support his family and livelihood.

But after three years of the disaster, Tamang is back to his own country and has started working as a labor in the Araniko Highway upgradation project, thanks to the efforts to resume the Tatopani border point. The Nepal-China border is likely to resume in May this year.

“I heard that the border point will resume soon, so returned back to my country. Once the border is open, I am hopeful our lives will be normal again,” said Tamang.

Tamang works everyday from 7 am to 5:30 pm. He clears the road from falling stones from the hills and earns eight hundred rupees per day, thus he can support his six-member family.

Not only Tamang, but also dozens of Nepali youths are currently working in the upgradation of the road section from Barhabise to border point which is a major section of China-built Araniko Highway, the oldest and shortest route connecting Nepal’s capital with China.

Dipendra Kumar Shrestha, Chairman of Bhotekoshi Rural Municipality Ward-2, where the border point is located, said, “Among around 900 households, more than 600 families have been displaced due to the earthquake and other disasters in my ward alone. Many migrated to Kathmandu while local youths moved to the Middle East and Gulf countries for employment.”

He shared that the displaced families are returning home gradually with the hope of reviving their businesses and regular lives. People from villages such as Larcha, Tatopnai, Liping, Kodari were solely dependent upon the border point for livelihood by running hotels, shops, and small business, among others.

Local government officials said that the Chinese workers are working day and night to bring the border point back to its normalcy, be it road upgradation, construction of a friendship bridge over the Bhotekoshi River locally known as the “Miteri Bridge”, or the construction of a modern dry port.

Raj Kumar Poudel, Chairman of Bhotekoshi Rural Municipality said that over 90 percent works of the dry port construction has been completed.

“The road upgradation task and friendship bridge construction is also moving in a rapid manner. Everyone is desperately waiting for the resumption of border after few years of closure,” he added.

Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Raghubir Mahaseth Sunday inspected the area and directed concerned agencies to start necessary tasks from the Nepali side immediately.

Nepali immigration, customs and quarantine offices are expected to operate from the newly constructed dry port, which has been built by Chinese Railway Construction Company, just a few kilometers away from the border point.

The international standard dry port, which has a capacity of parking around 300 containers, features warehouse, checking yard, bank, parking lot and residential complex among others.

Hundreds of traders under the Trans Himalayan Association are hopeful that the resumption of the border will help in revival of their business, and the country’s economy as a whole.

Bhakta Parajuli, Secretary at the association, said that the resumption of the Tatopani border point will bring a big change from the local to the central level.

“It would be a milestone for bilateral trade and the country’s prosperity,” he said.

Following the closure of the border point since the deadly earthquake, Geelong Port located in Rasuwa district, locally known as Keyrung, is the only operating trade point between Nepal and China.

Traders said that it requires double time and money to import the goods via Keyrung point as containers take longer time to arrive through the Kolkata port in India.

Parajuli said that it would take some 15-20 days for the imported goods to reach Kathmandu through Khasa-Tatopani whereas it takes 2-3 months via Kerung-Rasuwa, while the cost of transportation almost triples for the latter. XINHUA

HUNTSVILLE, Jan 12: Brandy Van Gelder has waited four years to return to Nepal.

“I knew I would go back,” she said. “I knew I wanted to return to help.”

She and her friend, Kelly Hammond, had travelled with Dream Mountains Foundation to Nepal for a charitable trek to Mount Everest Base Camp in April 2015. Van Gelder had planned to mark her one-year cancer-free milestone as she reached the base camp.

But shortly after the duo arrived, tragedy struck in the form of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked Nepal, claiming more than 9,000 lives. It was one of the deadliest earthquakes in Nepal’s history.

Several dozen aftershocks, many of them nearly as severe as the initial earthquake, followed, and monsoon floods and landslides had continued to devastate the country.

Van Gelder and Hammond, both members of the Rotary Club of Huntsville, had taken immediate action while in the country, through a collaboration between their fellow Huntsville Rotarians as well as Nepalese and Russian Rotarians they had met in Kathmandu, to fund and deliver emergency shelters and supplies to those affected.

But the trauma they sustained as firsthand witnesses to the disaster, as well as their own near-death experiences, remained with them as they were forced to evacuate with other foreign nationals.

“I left a piece of me there,” said Van Gelder.

Hammond returned to Nepal to trek to base camp in 2018.

And now Van Gelder — with her husband, Dave, by her side — will return in April.

The couple will not only trek to Mount Everest Base Camp, but will also use a Rotary grant and other funds to rehabilitate several destroyed Nepalese schools, and install water filters, in collaboration with Canadian and Nepalese Rotarians.

The new excursion will mark five years cancer-free for Brandy.

And it could offer some closure for Dave, too, who said he felt helpless so far from Brandy when the earthquake struck.

“I felt so useless being at home,” said Dave. “I’ll feel a lot better knowing that, if something happens, at least I’m there with her. Even if I can’t do a thing, at least I’m there to try.”

Nepal will be the couple’s second Rotary humanitarian excursion. Both participated in a Rotarians Enhancing Learning of African Youth school refurbishment and education project in Zambia, organized through the Rotary Club of Bracebridge-Muskoka Lakes, in 2018.

Dave said the impact their work in Zambia had on the children and teachers there — and the overwhelming gratitude of the young students — greatly affected him.

“Some people, including us, do a lot of local humanitarian work. But it does feel really good to help with international projects, too,” he said. “There is a lot of good in the world.”

The five-day work project in Nepal will provide washrooms, computer labs, libraries, desks and more to rural and remote schools that had been shuttered since 2015.

Huntsville residents Dave and Brandy Van Gelder say they are ready to make some new humanitarian memories after Brandy’s traumatic experience with fellow traveller Kelly Hammond during the Nepal earthquake in 2015.

DHUNGKHARKA, April 23: Billions of dollars poured into Nepal after a powerful earthquake devastated the country three years ago is being misdirected towards building unnecessary new homes where old ones could have been salvaged, experts warn.

Survivors of the 7.8-magnitude quake that killed nearly 9,000 people in April 2015 are being pushed to construct new buildings they do not need, casting doubt on the efficacy of the government’s US$9 billion (S$11 billion) reconstruction effort.

“It is proposing the wrong solution for a lot of people,” said Noll Tufani, Nepal country director for Build Change, a charity specializing in disaster-proofing.

Building quake-proof homes was a condition of the US$4.1 billion pledged to Nepal by international donors under the tagline “build back better”.

The government identified 708,000 families whose homes had been damaged and set up a US$3,000 cash subsidy program to encourage them to construct homes that would withstand future seismic shocks.

Three years later, just 15 percent have been rebuilt under the US$2.1 billion scheme.

The sluggish reconstruction effort has been hit by political infighting, bureaucracy and confusion among quake victims over how to obtain the subsidy.

Many felled their damaged homes to build smaller ones – often at huge cost – instead of quake-proofing their mud and brick dwellings by retrofitting them with reinforced beams.

Build Change estimates that some 250,000 homes could be salvaged in this way, while another 150,000 rebuilt since the disaster would also need to be retrofitted.

Sturdy wooden pillars secure Shekhar Prasad Timilsina’s house in Dungkharka, a village 45km east of Kathmandu, as workers busily mix concrete and bend rods on his porch.

“My house did not collapse but suffered cracks after the earthquake. I’m glad I did not have to tear it down and could retrofit it,” said the 69-year-old.

The National Reconstruction Authority, the government agency overseeing the rebuilding effort, only approved retrofitting midway through last year.

“We were unsure what to do earlier. With the grant we could have built only a small house,” said Mr Indra Lal Shrestha, a trained retrofitter.

He plans to retrofit his own family home rather than razing it.

“We can live like we used to… and are not forced to take on large debts to rebuild,” he said.

Many villagers live in mud and stone houses two-and-a-half storeys high, with space to house animals and store grain as well as accommodate a large extended family.

But the cost of rebuilding with the money provided is beyond many families.

Meanwhile, the government-approved designs for new homes are much smaller, forcing families to adjust farming practices that are the main source of income in rural, impoverished Nepal.

Yub Raj Bhusal, the head of the reconstruction authority, concedes that more homes could have benefited from retrofitting.

“Retrofitting is important, it should have started earlier,” he told AFP. “But now that we have opened doors, we expect there might more people interested to retrofit and retain their original homes.”

The British government’s Department of International Development (DFID) has committed US$7.6 million to a retrofitting project with Build Change.

So far, around 50 homes have been completed. The government has earmarked around 25,000 homes for retrofitting but DFID and Build Change say more could be done.

Rebuilding has picked up. The government says it is on target to complete reconstruction by 2020, but faces an estimated US$1 billion shortfall for rebuilding homes alone. AFP

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.

Kiran Bhattarai
KATHMANDU, Feb 14: Many victims of the April 2015 earthquake are still crying for rehabilitation and relief, almost two and a half years since the tragedy occurred killing nearly 9,000 people, and destroying thousands of houses and structures.

The government showed prompt rescue and relief-distribution efforts shortly by announcing a grant of Rs 300,000 initially to build a new house, and other housing loan schemes. Likewise, a cabinet meeting on January 24 decided to provide additional Rs 100,000 to a victim family under the housing grant.

Under these schemes, eligible quake victim family can receive a maximum of interest free loan of Rs 300,000 in lump sum each against community collateral or collateral of their under-construction house for house construction, and a quake-hit family can take out a loan of up to Rs 2.5 million in Kathmandu valley and Rs 1.5 million outside from different banks and financial institutions at subsidized interest rate of 2 percent, to be repaid in three to five years.

These plans have however yet to be executed fully either for failure on the part of concerned authority to act accordingly and unawareness of the target people.

As for the interest free-grant, the scheme has not come into operation so far, while available data said only a few of quake victims have taken out the subsidized loan so far, thanks to reluctance of various authorized banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to issue the loans. The BFIs said confusion over the criteria and procedures to issue the subsidized loan have made the matter worse.

The provision of the interest-free loans was also mentioned in the speech of the government’s annual budget 2016\17. The provision got approved from a Cabinet meeting in mid May, 2016. The Finance Ministry has also issued a work procedure in coordination with the Rastra Bank and the NRA for the interest-free loan.

The NRA said the program has been introduced targeting lower income farmers, landless families, and laborers. Banks that are categorized into ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ class and financial institutions recognized by the Rastra Bank can release the subsidized loan.

The work procedure states some terms and conditions for receiving such loans. The people whose houses were destroyed in the quake and who hold identity card for quake victims would be eligible for the grant.

According to the procedure, community collateral, against which the BFIs would disburse such loans, should be secured by the Credit Information Bureau.

The Financial Sector Management Division under the Finance Ministry, the government will establish a fund at the Rastra Bank, Banking Office, Thapathali to pay interest, insurance and security charges on the disbursed loans. The Rastra Bank is required to pay the BFIs’ interest, insurance and security fee claims on a quarterly basis.

The interest rate alongside the BFIs’ investment will be raised by two percent.
A committee under the deputy governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank, with respective regional representatives, will be formed to coordinate and monitor the execution of such interest-free loans.

Other members of the committee will include joint secretary of the Finance Ministry, joint secretary of the NRA, and president of Nepal Bankers’ and Association.

Executive director for the Banks and Financial institution Regulation department at the Rastra Bank will be member-secretary.

On May 27, 2015, the Central Bank announced to provide refinancing at zero percent interest to the BFIs under the loan scheme, and issued circulars to them to act accordingly. In return, the BFIs will have to issue the loans at two percent interest.

In initials days, the BFIs refused to issue the loans citing confusions over the criteria and procedures.

Confusions over quake victim identity, documentation procedures, the requirement of for collateral and other factors among others are to blame for the delay of nearly six months for the loan scheme to come into full operation.

When asked, acting President of the Nepal Bankers’ Association Gynendra Prasad Dhunga said that eligible quake victims would get the loans hassle-free after going through due processes, while claiming that no such victim has been returned empty-handed on such various pretexts as reported.

The only concern of the BFIs is whether or not the debtors can repay the loans, he said. A long halt in approving house design, elections, apathy of the victims themselves, and suspicions that the two percent interest on the loans may increase are some factors behind the reluctance of the quake victims to take out a grant loan, he said.

For the part of the Central Bank, its Spokesperson Narayan Poudel said the bank was facilitating the BFIs in distributing the loans to the victims. It has also been refinancing the BFIs by issuing loan again as well, he added.

JIRI, Dec 8: An aftershock of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake was recorded with its epicenter around Jiri of Dolakha this morning.

The quake at 8:36 am was measured 5.2 magnitude in the Richter scale, according to the National Seismological Center.

The aftershock was felt as far as in the capital with Dolkha district headquarters Charikot experiencing a big jolt, seismologist Chitan Timalsina said.

Around 500 aftershocks of 4 Richter scale and above have been recorded so far since the April 25 mega earthquake, the Centre has said. RSS

GORKHA, July 19: Reconstruction of the historic Gorkha Palace based in Gorkha district has begun. The palace with historic, religious and archaeological importance, had suffered extensive damages during the Gorkha Earthquake that rattled the country on 25th April, 2015.

The palace would be reconstructed from its foundation, according to the Gorkha Palace Caretaking Section. Now we can see the palace surrounded by the corrugated zinc sheets as its dismantling is going on. The Department of Archaeology has allocated Rs 505 million to the section to undertake the reconstruction works.

The palace dating back to 400 years will be restored to its original form, Section Staff Rameshwor Kattel said.

Giving reaction to the commencement of the rebuilding works, palace main priest Pradeepnath Yogi said he including other priests were happy to see the beginning of palace reconstruction. The palace developed cracks on its walls and its yard caved-in the quake.

The quake inflicted damages to Gorakhkali Temple, Gorakhnath Cave, Chaughera Palace and other structures. Guru Gorakhnath is respected as the ancestral God (Kuldevata) of the (ex) royal families.

The palace, the birthplace of King Prithvi Narayan Shah, the unifier of modern Nepal, has a significant value in multiple terms. However, the Gorakhnath Cave and some other structures were repaired earlier.

Bearing in mind the ongoing reconstruction works, public will not be allowed to worshipping at the temple for a month. However, the temple will continue its regular rituals.

It is expected to take three years to complete the reconstruction works. RSS