Department of Urban Development and Building Construction, in association with some non-governmental organisations (NGOs), is showcasing some 25 designs of earthquake-resilient houses suitable for rural areas during the donors’ conference on June 25.
The houses will be constructed using local raw materials like mud, stones and wood, advisor to National Planning Commission (NPC) for urban planning and settlement development Kishor Thapa said.
These houses to be built in rural areas will be two stories, he said, adding that their walls will be tied with beams or wooden poles. “Similarly, their roofs and walls are fixed in such a way that they won’t part easily.”
Most of the damaged houses in rural areas had weak binding between walls and wooden poles. The new designs can withstand earthquake of up to 8.4 Richter scale, former secretary Thapa said. The government also plans to train around 30,000 masons and carpenters and deploy them to build earthquake resilient homes.
“The government will be supervised by local technicians, who will also prepare skilled hands in rural areas,” he added.
The plan is also to encourage middle and lower class families to join house-pooling programme. According to the government, house-pooling concept will be more relevant in settlements like in Idrachowk, where it is impossible to build individual houses.
People with very small piece of land – one or two-ana – build individual houses in Kathmandu city centre. “However, they can jointly build houses on their land plots and share infrastructures like stairs and lobbies,” he said, adding that some locals have already showed interested to join house-pooling.
The planning commission is also mulling over allowing people to build multi-storied building in business centres. But such buildings should be earthquake-resilient and owners must conduct geological tests before starting construction.