SINDHULI, Mar 1: National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has distributed over nine billion rupees as housing reconstruction grant to the quake victims in Sindhuli over the last four years. According to the authority, 70 percent of reconstruction work in the district has been completed.
"First, second and in some cases also the third tranches of the grant have already been distributed to the earthquake victims. Grant distribution work is still ongoing," said Suresh Dahal of the Financial Comptroller's Office said.
95 percent work of Madan Bhandari Highway completed
According to Surya Prakash Bista, chief of the office of Grant Management and Local Infrastructure of the District Project Implementation Unit of the NRA, Rs 2.5 billion more may be needed to complete the reconstruction work in the district. "Around 70 percent of the reconstruction work in the district is complete and we may need another Rs 2.5 billion to complete the remaining work," he stated. He added that the quake victims were provided Rs 50,000 in the first installment, Rs 150,000 in the second and Rs 100,000 in the third installment.
Officials informed that they spent Rs 1.8 billion to distribute the first installment of the grant and another Rs 560.3 million was spent for retrofitting work in the district.
Similarly, Rs 4.7 billion has been distributed as second installment of the housing grant.
According to Bista, it indeed took a long time for the reconstruction process. However, now the development is satisfactory. He stated that the reconstruction works will be completed by 90 percent in four months.
As many as 38,562 families in Sindhuli have so far received the reconstruction grant. Similarly, there are 14,441 housholds have been listed as beneficiaries for retrofitting grant.