The government has distributed the first tranche of housing grants to 448,373 households affected by last year’s earthquake, according to the Ministry of Local Development and Federal Affairs.

Issuing a statement on Friday, the ministry said that it has reached bilateral agreements with 537,819 households to provide housing grant. Out of that, 448,373 house owners have already received the first tranche of the government aid to rebuild their homes.

Over the period, the ministry has received more than 203,663 complaints related to reconstruction and rehabilitation works, lack of funds to build houses and other grievances from the quake victims.

The ministry has distributed the aid money to the eligible victims through various banks and financial institutions listed by the National Reconstruction Authority. As per the decision, each household would get the first instalment of Rs50,000 in grant from the government to rebuild their houses. 

The ministry has also instructed the concerned District Development Committees, Municipalities, Village Development Committees to provide a list of house owners who have already reached the agreement with the government but yet to receive the grant money. 

Sindhupalchok topped the list with 74,845 households already receiving the first tranche, followed by Kavre with 59,751 households; Dolakha (53,357); Dhading (52,917); Gorkha (52,343); Ramechhap (39,759); Makwanpur (26,909); Sindhuli (26,312); Okhaldhunga(17,736) and Rasuwa (8,317).

The process for signing of the bilateral agreement in the remaining three districts—Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur—will begin soon, the ministry said. 

The Ministry of Finance has recently released an additional Rs 33 billion for reconstruction projects, including housing grants, reconstruction of schools and other government structures. 

Meanwhile, representatives of the NRA and other government agencies told the first quarterly review meeting on reconstruction works on Friday that around 80 percent of the works related to the post-earthquake reconstruction had been initiated.

They stressed the need to remove hurdles for the timely approval programmes, budget allocation, result-oriented work execution to achieve a noticeable progress in the reconstruction drive.

NRA Chief Executive Sushil Gyewali urged the concerned authorities to implement the programmes and action plan approved by the NRA Directive Committee. “Efforts are on to supply timber to the districts facing its shortage,” he said. 

National Planning Commission member Dr Arbind Kumar Mishra underlined the need of additional cooperation to tackle challenges in the post-quake reconstruction works.