According to Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA), around 4,000 structures were demolished during the road expansion campaign.

While the roads have undergone a successful expansion, experts say the partially damaged structures which had to be rebuilt are unable to withstand earthquake, fire and other natural calamities. “The people living in these houses are at risk. These structures should be retrofitted in accordance to the law to make them robust,” said Sashindra Ghimire, engineer at the Building Construction Maintenance Division.

Krishna Prasad Manandhar, whose Nayabazar house was demolished during road expansion, said he did not know anything about the building code and that no government official visited him while the reconstruction work was progressing.

According to the Building Act 1998, the building should be constructed under the supervision of a designer, engineer or architect. Building construction means building a new building, reconstructing an old building by demolishing it, adding a storey, changing frontage and add or alter different parts of building.

Despite this law, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), the authority to monitor these demolished structures, has failed to inspect these houses and supervise the house owners for secure construction. “We have been unable to monitor these houses due to human resource shortage,”  said Archana Shrestha, departmental chief at the Urban Development and Land Survey at KMC. “None of the house owners approached us for reconstruction advice.”

KVDA officials said that most of the houses bulldozed during the road expansion drive were left in critical state. “These houses should have been repaired after consultations with the experts,” said Bhai Kaji Tiwari, Deputy Development Commissioner at the KVDA

Most of the reconstruction works were carried out without experts advice. “The cost of the construction would go up by at least 25 percent if the house owners choose to use standard materials suggested by the experts,” said Ghimire. “The building should be designed after observing the base soil condition, load bearing capacity, earthquake retention and wind pressure, among others.”

 Kathmandu is among the 21 cities in the world located over seismic zone. Researches have shown that a major earthquake similar to the one in 1934 could strike any day, which could destroy 60 to 70 percent of the buildings in the Valley and cause huge casualties. A study by UNDP/BCPR in 2004 ranked Nepal as the 11th most riskiest country in the world in terms of vulnerability to earthquakes. Another report by the World Bank in 2005 has also classified Nepal as one of the areas prone to natural disasters.