The devastating earthquake of April 25, 2015, caused a massive damage across country. The epicenter of the earthquake was Barpak—a remote village in Gorkha district.

It is well-known that Barpak and its surrounding areas like Laprak, Gumda, Kerauja, Uhiya, Saurpani, Swara, Mucchok were badly affected by the major earthquake. Having witnessed a huge loss of lives and damage to infrastructures, these places are still struggling to cope with post-earthquake recovery, let alone the healing of psychological scars they suffered.

Most quake victims are still living in makeshift shelters. Numerous diseases have gripped them due to the imbalanced lifestyle.

But on the flip side, Gorkha is finally limping back to normalcy after two years of the quake with the reconstruction works gaining momentum.

Villagers are now hopeful that the damaged settlements will soon get a face-lift giving them back their regular life. As National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) CEO put it, “it is equally important to resurrect the socio-economic system along with the physical reconstruction”, the place appears to be in tune with his quote.

The government had announced a grant of Rs 300,000 each to the quake victims for rebuilding their homes. A total of 58,503 houses in the district were listed as eligible for the government grant. Later 4587 houses were added to the list.

Of those, 54, 648 families have received Rs 50,000 as the first tranche of the aid. After that 8521 families, who had started rebuilding homes meeting the criteria set by NRA, availed Rs150,000 in second installment. And 1200 families have received Rs 100,000 so far as the final installment of the aid.

Along with the private houses, roads, bridges, irrigation canals, government buildings, schools, health posts, micro hydro projects, which were damaged by the earthquake in the district, are in the verge of getting a new shape.

Gorkha strides in health and education

Most schools of Gorkha fell to the ground by the quake. Of 443 schools which were rendered useless after the earthquake, 205 schools have been reconstructed in the period of 30 months, according to District Education Office, Gorkha.

Forty-four school buildings are currently under construction while the process is already in place to reconstruct 46 more damaged schools. So far about the remaining schools, the local authority says it is looking for the fund. “We are in search of resources to reconstruct 149 schools rendered functionless by the quake,” said DEO Chief Dipendra Subedi.

Subedi said that they have added the campaign of “one school one library and one laboratory” to the reconstruction process. “When these earthquake-resistant buildings will be completed, we will have a full functioning and quality imparting schools in our district,” said Subedi.

Not only this, model schools with ultramodern buildings under the assistance of Japan, India and China are being constructed in the district.

The quake had completely ruined 55 health posts in the district. Of them, 42 buildings have already been reconstructed. The remaining health posts are still delivering their services from temporary shelters and tarpaulins.

Many INGOs had pleaded with Health Department and District Public Health Offices to allow them to construct temporary health posts in Gorkha. But most of them could not do it on their own set deadline. Aid agency and INGOs have delayed constructing health posts in Barpak, Choprak, Bakrang, Gumda and Namju.

However, these INGOs have committed to complete their job in the near future. They had acquired the permission to construct health posts promising that they would complete their job in two months of the quake. Ironically, it is already more than two years since the tremor jolted Nepal.

District Public Health Office’s Chief Kedar Raj Parajuli said that Health Department will gradually start rebuilding permanent structures in the temporary health posts build after the quake.

Reconstruction of Gorkha Durbar

Gorkha district is famous for carrying the roots of Shah Dynasty which are historically attributed for unifying Nepal. The decade old Palace of Shah King suffered fissures and cracks by the quake. But 27 months after the quake, the reconstruction of this Palace has started.

Department of Archaeology with fund from NRA has started reconstruction of the Palace by uprooting the existing foundation of the main building. The authority is committed to rebuild this Palace keeping intact the old structure.

The builders plan to complete the reconstruction in two-and-half years.

The reconstruction is being carried out as per the suggestion of engineers of the Archaeology Department.

“Building a new foundation in place of the old one was the idea of these engineers and they are inclined to build a new building in old design,” said Rameshwor Kattel, chief of the committee tasked with overseeing Gorkha Palace.

The building was built in 1686 BS during the reign of King Ram Shah. According to available historical data, seven Shah Kings ruled Gorkha form that Palace before Prithvi Naryan Shah started Nepal unification.

The Palace resisted the catastrophic earthquake of 1990 (BS) but it was rattled to its foundation by the earthquake of 2015.