By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Oct. 19: Chief Executive Officer of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Sushil Gyawali on Friday urged the beneficiaries of the post-quake reconstruction to obtain the second tranche of the housing grant before mid-November this year.
Speaking at a programme in Lalitpur, he requested them to get the grant money in due time. The NRA has set the mid-November 2019 as the deadline to obtain the second instalment of the grant.
The beneficiaries are entitled of Rs. 300,000 for the reconstruction of their houses damaged in the devastating earthquake in 2015 which is being distributed in three tranches of Rs. 50,000, Rs. 150,000 and Rs. 100,000.
The reconstruction body has signed grant agreement with 776,910 families, of which 768,549 have obtained the first tranche, 612,105 second and 507,048 the third tranche.
About 469,259 houses have been reconstructed while 194,456 houses are under construction. But, only 32 per cent beneficiaries in Lalitpur district have obtained the third instalment of the grant.
Gyawali said that it was necessary to understand the reasons behind the delay in house reconstruction in urban area, and directed the staff to be mobilised as per 'one house, one project' plan.
Deputy-Director of the Central Project Implementation Unit (Grant Management and Local Infrastructure) Narayan Prasad Shrestha said that support from one and all was needed to expedite the reconstruction in the urban areas otherwise the beneficiaries would be deprived of the government grant.
According to District Project Implementation Unit (Grant Management and Local Infrastructure Lalitpur) Shiva Ram Gelal, the beneficiaries had the problems like landlessness, small piece of land, dispute in land ownership and unwillingness in house reconstruction.
Meanwhile, the Reactive Monitoring Mission of the Unesco, which is in Nepal to study the recent status of the Unesco World Heritage Sites in the Kathmandu Valley, has met CEO Gyawali on Thursday.
He informed the visiting delegation that the NRA had given special attention to heritage reconstruction. He said that while the reconstruction of the cultural monuments was going on, the government was also developing a detailed Master Plan to develop them.
He also informed that the work had been expedited to develop three heritage settlements each in the Valley and outside.
The Unesco Mission is led by Gamini Wijesuriya, International Export at the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Properties. He suggested maintaining the records of the heritage reconstruction.
Of the quake-damaged 140 heritages in the Valley, 90 have so far been restored. Pashupatinath Temple, Swayambhunath Stupa, Hanumandhoka Durbar, Patan Durbar, Bhaktapur Durbar, Changunarayan Temple and Bauddhanath Stupa are the Unesco World Heritage Sites in the Kathmandu Valley.