The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has released Rs50 million to the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) for mobilising the final year students of the Bachelors in Civil Engineering programme in the rebuilding of private houses damaged by the Gorkha Earthquake. 

In an attempt to expedite the rebuilding efforts, the NRA has planned to mobilise 4,300 students from different universities and their affiliated colleges in the districts as volunteers to bridge the gap of trained human resources, including engineers and sub-overseers, in providing technical support to the households in rebuilding the houses damaged earthquake-affected districts. 

In the first phase, 1,000 students from Pokhara University will be trained and deployed in the districts in need of trained expert hands to speed up the rebuilding of private houses damaged by the earthquake about two years ago, said Rajan Poudel, under-secretary at the NRA budget section. 

The NRA has proposed to allocate Rs 110 million to send students as volunteers. The rebuilding of the quake-damaged households have been seriously behind schedule due to lack of trained masons and technical experts. 

“We expect the distribution of the housing aid and rebuilding works move smoothly with the mobilisation of the needed human resources, including students as volunteers,” Poudel added. 

The government has allocated Rs 160 billion to carry out reconstruction works, including distribution of the private housing aid to the affected households in 31 districts for the fiscal year 2016-2017. Of the total budget, Rs 50.97 billion accounts for the capital expenditure and remaining Rs55.54 billion under the recurrent budget that includes amount allocated for the housing aid. 

Of the total estimated Rs90 billion required for distribution of the housing aid, including the amount for retrofitting houses, Rs 46.12 billion has already been disbursed, according to the NRA.