Kathmandu has received more than Rs 50 million from its sister cities around the world after the April 25 earthquake, which metropolitan officials say will be used for funding reconstruction projects.

Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has created a reconstruction fund worth Rs100 million and the amount sent by its sister cities will be added to that fund, its International Relations Secretariat Chief Gangadhar Gautam told the Post on Sunday. “Donations from sister cities will be spent under KMC’s reconstruction project in coordination with National Reconstruction Authority.”

According to Gautam, KMC has maintained active sister city relations with eight cities -Xi’an, Shenzhen and Lhasa in China, Eugene (Oregon) and Rochester (New York) in the US, Belarusian capital Belarus, Matsumoto in Japan and Varanasi in India. Sister cities are pairs of cities in separate countries with town twining arrangements for the promotion of economic and cultural bonds.

Among KMC’s sisters, Shenzen has donated Rs10 million, Xi’an has donated Rs16.1 million, Lhasa Rs20 million and Matsumoto Rs10 million while other cities have also provided some amount. Japanese city Hiroshima has also donated some fund specifically for Kathmandu though it is not a sister city.

The amount sent by Lhasa is currently at Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund as government adopted a one-door policy for relief funds immediately after the earthquake. The KMC has not been able to bring the money under its control yet. “The money was sent directly for us,”KMC Chief and Executive Officer Rudra Singh Tamang said. “But despite repeated correspondence with the PM fund, we have not received it.”

Besides, Gautam said that the cities have not made specific requests on how the amount was to be spent. “They have just said that the money is for relief, reconstruction and development activities for Kathmandu,”he said. He, however, added that KMC has pledged to spend the amount sent by Matsumoto for the reconstruction of Multipurpose Martial Arts Centre at Naya Bazar in the capital.

According to official data, a total of 5,227 private houses in Kathmandu metropolis have been fully damaged while 18,770 have suffered partial damage due to the earthquake. Moreover, 23 government buildings were fully damaged while 21 were partially damaged.