(Aditya Baral) 2 Feb, Melamchi- One more community integrated model settlement is to be constructed for the earthquake survivors at Giranchaur of Melamchi Municipality-8 in Sindhupalchok district.
Chief Executive Officer of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), Dr Govinda Raj Pokharel laid the foundation stone for the community integrated model settlement amidst a function here on Wednesday.
The 150 earthquake-resistance shelters that are going to be built at Giranchaur is the biggest settlement expansion project in the country following the one developed by the Dhurmus-Suntali Foundation at the same place before this.
Speaking at the foundation-laying programme, CEO Pokharel said the integrated settlement expansion plan would work as the identity of the country itself and the shelters that would be constructed would be an example of earthquake-resilient houses for the future generation.
He said that as the integrated settlement that is coming up at Giranchaur is a project that spreads a message of post-earthquake reconstruction efforts, the local community should extend support and join hands in its construction.
Reiterating that reconstruction would be possible if all worked together in constructing their quake-damaged houses by using the locally-available resources, CEO Pokharel said the government would extend the possible cooperation in the local rebuilding efforts.
He added that the second instalment of the house reconstruction grants have been released to the District Development Committee concerned on Monday alone to expedite the reconstruction works, and the money would be distributed soon after fulfilling the required process.
Giranchaur, which is four kilometres uphill from Sindhukhola under the Helambu highway, is inhabited by the people of different ethnicities. It is a mixed settlement.
Chief of the Settlement Expansion Project, Ganesh Tiwari said it is an exemplary initiation undertaken by the locals for developing a community integrated model settlement at Giranchaur which has a difficult rural geography.
Tiwari said the shelters are being constructed at the initiatives of 150 families from the Tamang, Tiwari and Bhattarai community through the house grants provided to the earthquake survivors.
Executive Chief of the Melamchi Municipality Purna Prasad Dulal said the locals joining hands to construct an integrated community model settlement in their locality under the slogan, ‘Let Us Build Our Houses Ourselves and Project to the World’, has set an example to the country.
One hundred and five Tamang families are still living in temporary shelters or the quake-damaged houses at Giranchaur.
The Urban Division Office statistics shows that 74,912 out of the 78,537 beneficiaries in the district have been provided with the first installment of the house rebuilding grants. More 14,447 people have applied for the grants saying they had been left out. Of them, only 47 families have been verified.
