Lack of land and government funding has stalled rebuilding of 450 earthquake-damaged schools in 32 districts, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The Central Level Project Implementation Unit of the National Reconstruction Authority is unable to rebuild because either the schools do not possess land or the land they have is not proper. CLPIU chief Nayaran Shrestha said finding spacious land in the hills suitable for schools was difficult.

The April 2015 earthquake damaged or destroyed around 33,000 classrooms of 9,000 schools in 39 districts.

The NRA unit is tasked with rebuilding quake-hit schools in 32 districts. The Department of Education is doing the job in other districts. The unit has completed 50 percent works at the 7,923 schools destroyed partially or completely while work progresses in 2,400 public schools. The government is yet to provide funds for 1,700 more schools in the worst-hit districts. There is no budgetary allocation for 1,000 schools elsewhere.

The Post Disaster Recovery Framework prepared by the NRA in May 2017 estimated Rs180 billion would be required for the reconstruction of quake-destroyed academic institutions and Rs167 billion for rebuilding schools and classrooms. It estimated Rs 130 billion for the 32 districts of which the government has generated Rs 71 billion so far. 

Although there is a deficit of Rs 59 billion, the CLPIU believes reconstruction can be over with Rs 24 billion if done through school management committees, said Shrestha.