The National Reconstruction Authority has added a number of government school buildings for reconstruction in Makwanpur district.

According to the District Project Implementation Unit, 70 school buildings have been added to the reconstruction list in the running fiscal year. Out of 516 school buildings in the district, only 54 were left untouched by the 2015 earthquake. Around 2,105 classrooms of various schools in the district were destroyed in the earthquake.

In the previous four fiscal years, the unit has constructed 136 school buildings in the district. In the running fiscal year, 65 school buildings are under construction. Badri Pathak, chief at the District Project Implementation Unit, said that the NRA has notified schools to submit their proposals by mid-September.

Sandeep Adhikari, an engineer at the unit, said that the NRA has set a condition to complete the construction of school infrastructures (buildings and toilets) by the end of June 2020.

“A team including one engineer and 10 sub engineers will be deployed to monitor the construction of school buildings,” said Adhikari, adding that the tender process will be completed within mid-October. “The construction work will start soon after the completion of the tender process. Thirty schools have already submitted their proposals.”

After the quake, engineers had put red stickers on 409 schools in the district that were at high risk of collapsing. Until now, various government and non-governmental organisations have constructed 255 school buildings (around 1,000 classrooms) in the district.

Raghunath Khulal, chief at the District Coordination Committee, said that the newly constructed school buildings will be well-facilitated and female and disabled-friendly.