Government of Nepal NATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION AUTHORITY

Kathmandu, December 22

The 21^st meeting of the Steering Committee of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) held today has thanked the leadership and all the staffs of the NRA for successfully taking forward the post-earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation to the completion stage.

The meeting chaired by Prime Minister and Chairperson of the NRA Steering Committee Sher Bahadur Deuba expressed gratitude to the international community, political parties, all three tiers of the government, government employees, security agencies, civil society, private sector, non-governmental organizations, academic sector, media, local communities and all the earthquake-affected people for directly and indirectly contributing in the post-earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation of structures damaged in the earthquake of April 25, 2015.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Deuba thanked the national and international community for their contributions and directed the concerned government agencies to complete the remaining reconstruction works. He also assured that there will be no budget constraints to complete the task.

Leader of the CPN (UML) and vice-chairperson of the NRA Steering Committee Subhash Nemwang stressed on the need to keep the experience and learning of the reconstruction in institutional memory and said that the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) needs to be more independent and rights to function well.

Chief Executive Officer of the NRA Sushil Gyewali shed light on the achievements of the reconstruction and rehabilitation and stressed on the need to take the disaster-resilient development approach as an integral part of the national development projects. He also stressed on the need to provide special legal rights, necessary financial management and human resources to the NDRRMA to make the Authority more effective.

The Steering Committee meeting has taken a decision on the handing over of remaining works of the NRA and its rights, liability, property, accounts, documents and other details.

As per the decision, the NDRRMA will now take over the responsibilities of facilitation, coordination and monitoring of reconstruction and rehabilitation works that have been handed over from the NRA to the concerned ministries, departments and agencies.

The NDRRMA has also been entrusted with the responsibility to prepare integrated financial report and auditing of the expenditure incurred by the NRA in the fiscal year 2078/79. It will also look after the activities of the Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Project (EHRP) financed by the World Bank and technical assistance, reimbursement and report writing of the activities supported by the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF).

The remaining works on Dharahara, Singh Durbar, Shantibatika section of Ranipokhari, Harihar Bhawan and Ranoddwip Durbar within the Narayanhiti Museum that have been reconstructed directly under the NRA will be now taken care of by the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) under the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD). The reconstructed Ranipokhari will now be handed over to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

The accounts and documents related to the Central Level Project Implementation Units (CLPIUs) – Housing, Education and Grant Management and Local Infrastructure (GMaLI) have already been handed over to the concerned ministries and departments.

The Steering Committee expressed satisfaction over the successful organization of International Conference on Nepal’s Reconstruction (ICNR) held in hybrid mode from December 7 to 9 despite the adverse situation of Covid-19 pandemic.

The meeting thanked foreign ministers, ministers and deputy ministries of various countries and their representatives and high level delegates of bilateral and multilateral development partners for their active participation in the ICNR.

Minister for Education, Science and Technology Devendra Poudel and Minister for Urban Development Ram Kumari Jhankri were present at the meeting, besides, Chief Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi, Chief Executive of the NDRRMA Anil Pokharel, secretaries of the NRA and other ministries, members of the Steering Committee and Executive Committee members of the NRA.

The tenure of the NRA which was established under the Article 3 (3) of the Act related to Reconstruction of Structured Damaged in Earthquake 2072 is coming to an end on December 24 as per the decision of the Council of Ministers on December 1.