The World Bank has approved an additional credit of $200 million (equivalent to Rs 22.82 billion) for the implementation of the Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Project (EHRP) in Nepal.

An agreement to this effect was signed between Shreekrishna Nepal, joint secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Faris H Hadad- Zervos, World Bank’s country manager for Nepal, The Himalayan Times reported.

The Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Project and the second additional financing contributes to Nepal’s umbrella Housing Reconstruction Programme (HRP), which aims to rebuild earthquake-resistant core housing units by providing housing grants to eligible beneficiaries who have enrolled in the programme, as per the World Bank.
 
Moreover, the World Bank said that the second additional financing will scale up EHRP’s support to the government’s HRP by financing reconstruction of an additional 86,680 houses in the 32 districts affected by the 2015 earthquake.

The government has been implementing the post-earthquake housing reconstruction project since August 14, 2015, with a credit amount of $200 million. The first additional credit of $300 million was approved on December 15, 2017. As of January 31, 2020, out of 683,367 beneficiaries enrolled under the EHRP in 14 most-affected districts, 99 per cent have received the first tranche, 82 per cent have received the second tranche, and 71 per cent have received the third tranche of the housing grant.