The ministry has sent a circulars to all municipalities and VDCs to put the ban into effect. “The decision regarding banning design approval and limiting house construction has been taken to assess the current building code before formulating a strict building code,” Ministry Spokesperson Purna Chandra Bhattarai told eKantipur.

The ministry has also asked the municipalities and VDCs to halt the new designs waiting approval.

The ministry decided to limit the houses to just two-storey after concluding that poor implementation of building code resulted in massive human casualties in recent earthquakes.