The government has completed reconstruction of only 28 percent of the infrastructure “damaged” during the decade-long conflict as of the last fiscal year.

According to the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR), a total of 3,861 infrastructure damaged during the civil war were rebuilt against the demand for reconstruction and rehabilitation of 13,777.

Schools, village development committee buildings, based in district headquarters, area government offices in districts, district development committees buildings, municipality and district technical offices, suspension bridges, are among the infrastructure reconstructed.

At 1,034 buildings, VDCs had the highest number of rebuilt infrastructure, followed by schools with 1,028.  

The government spent a total of Rs11.42 billion for the reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure, according to the ministry. Reconstruction and rehabilitation of police posts were carried out under the Nepal Peace Trust Fund with much of the contributions coming in from international donors.

A total of 9,916 infrastructure still need to be rebuilt which according to the ministry estimates would cost Rs26.9 billion. “Higher

number of requests for reconstruction of damaged infrastructure and scattered budget allocation have resulted in low progress in the post-conflict reconstruction,” said Suman Sharma, secretary at the ministry.

According to Dev Bahadur Adhikari, information officer at the ministry, the budget allocated under the Development for Peace Programme has been basically scattered. “There is no standard for making demand of projects under this programme. As a result, even the infrastructure which were not damaged during the conflict have been included under the programme,” he said.

Of the 4,368 projects which have requested for reconstruction under this programme, only 336 have been completed due to scattered budget allocation, Adhikari explained.

The reconstruction of damaged infrastructure during the conflict have been implemented under three programmes—Reconstruction and Rehabilitation, Development for Peace and Special Programme for Conflict Affected Areas.

The Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Programme was launched under a working procedure enacted in 2008, while the other two took off after three years. The Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Programme, along with the Development for Peace Programme are largely focused on the post-conflict reconstruction. The Special Programme for Conflict Affected Area, which targeted at uplifting the living standard of conflict affected people in mid- and far-western regions through implementation of small projects related to agriculture and livestock, has been discontinued.

The Reconstruction and Reconstruction Programme has made the best progress among the three, with 3,064 projects out of 8,916 demands have been completed as of the last fiscal year, according to the ministry. “With certain standard set for the projects under this programme, more budget has been allocated resulting in better progress,” said Adhikari.