Press Releases

On Nov.18, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a Record of Discussions with the Government of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in Kathmandu for The Project for Building Management Enabling Urban Resilience, a technical cooperation project.

The project aims to promote the construction of safer, earthquake-resistant buildings in the Kathmandu Valley through improving the mechanism for Nepal National Building Code (NNBC) compliance by improving the Building Construction Working Procedure, as well as developing the capacity and raising the awareness of the stakeholders. The project will contribute to the SDGs Goal 11.

An earthquake of Mw7.8 (USGS) that occurred with its epicenter approximately 76km west of Kathmandu in April 2015, completely destroyed or damaged about 800,000 houses. Due to the predicted risk of future earthquakes in the Kathmandu Valley, the government of Nepal is preparing a National Plan of Action for Safer Building Construction (NaPA)to mainstream earthquake-resistant buildings within 20 years. It is also enhancing the regulations, including revising NNBC105: Seismic Design of Buildings.
In Kathmandu Valley, since the previous earthquake, the mainstream of building structures has been shifted from brick block to reinforced concrete structures. However, due to a lack of knowledge of the technology and of awareness of NNBC compliance, buildings that differ from the drawings have been constructed and building safety is not ensured. So, it is important to strengthen the capacity and raise the awareness of stakeholders involved in building construction. The project aims to improve the NNBC compliance mechanism through improving the process of building permits and approvals, and strengthening the capacity of building owners, building engineers and contractors, alongside that of government officials.

Details for the project are provided below.