Each of the 23 teams, tasked to study earthquake-related damages and assess reconstruction needs, were led by a joint secretary. Damages to various sectors such as health, education, transportation, drinking water, hydropower, employment and social protection among others, were studied by the teams.
All the teams have submitted their initial draft of Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and will submit their final report by June 10. The government will allocate budget in the upcoming fiscal year for reconstruction based on the PDNA reports, said Chandra Mani Bhattarai, a member of the NPC.Purna Chandra Bhattarai, joint-secretary at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, who led a team to carry out needs assessment in transportation sector, said that the finding of the team shows that at least 27 billion rupees would be required to restore the damages to the transportation sector across the country.
"Our team assessed all our road infrastructures, especially, in all the quake-affected districts. So, in order to build better and resilient road infrastructures, we need at least 27 billion rupees. The amount may go up as we are just working on the draft report at present," said he.
Similarly, Lava Deo Awasthi, joint-secretary at Ministry of Education, who lead a team to study damages to the education sector and provide an estimate for reconstruction, said that their draft report has concluded that at least 40 billion rupees would be needed for reconstruction works in the education sector.
"Our assessment shows that the damages to the education sector by the earthquake across the country crossed 30 billion rupees. So, we have suggested that the government allocate 40 billion rupees to rebuild educational infrastructure," said he.
Likewise, Ram Chandra Devkota, joint-secretary of Ministry of Urban Development who led a team to study damages by the earthquakes to the drinking water and sanitation sectors informed that drinking water supply infrastructures and toilets worth Rs 6 billion were damaged. He said the government needs to allocate at least 8 billion rupees to build water and sanitation infrastructures.
As the preliminary need assessments are being submitted to the planning commission, the Ministry of Finance estimates that the reconstruction cost may go well over Rs 1,000 billion.
The government has called a national conference of the donor agencies for June 25 under the coordination of Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat.
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