Kathmandu: The Government of India on Friday handed over a cheque of 2.1 billion Nepalese rupees to the Nepal Government in an effort to help them reconstruct houses flattened in the 2015 earthquake.
A release from the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu stated: “Shri Manjeev Singh Puri, Ambassador of India to Nepal handed over a cheque of NPR (Nepalese Rupees) 2.1 billion to Dr. Rajan Khanal, Finance Secretary of Nepal towards reimbursement of the first tranche of housing support to 42,086 GoI supported housing beneficiaries in Nuwakot and Gorkha.”
The Indian government, who acted quickly within hours of the devastating earthquake in April 2015, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for USD 100 million grant on 20 February 2016, to support the house reconstruction in Nuwakot and Gorkha districts of Nepal.
In the same year, India and Nepal again agreed to utilise an additional amount of USD 50 million from the USD 750 Line of Credit (LOC) in September towards the payment of the third tranche of housing grant to 50,000 housing beneficiaries supported by the Indian government.
Since March 2018, India in partnership with United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) are working to provide socio-technical facilities to the housing beneficiaries in the two districts and to ensure that the houses comply with Nepal’s earthquake resilient norms.
The Gorkha district, located in Central Nepal was the epicentre of the earthquake, which struck the Himalayan nation in April 2015, claiming over 10,000 lives and flattening thousands of houses. (ANI)