Over 13,000 houses checked in Kathmandu; 50% unsuitable to live

KATHMANDU: Half of over 13,000 houses in Nepal are unsuitable to live or require renovations after engineers evaluated structures suffering cracks in the quake- hit country, a report said today.

Over 2,000 engineers were deployed voluntarily to check safety of houses here in the aftermath of the April 25 temblor, the country's worst in over 80 years, and checked over 13,000 till this evening.

Of the checked houses, 50 per cent are suitable for residing; 20-25 per cent are unsuitable and remaining others need renovations, myrepublica.com reported.

The engineers' teams classify the houses in three categories - the house with a red mark is not suitable for stay, with yellow mark needs maintenance and those marked with green colour are appropriate for living.

A total of 1,915,800 houses were completely damaged, 175,162 were partially damaged by the powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake that flattened buildings and uprooted electric poles and trees.

Likewise, 10,718 government offices were turned into ruins and over 14,741 suffered partial damages, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The report said that house owners in the capital could contact authorities to get free engineering services that have been available since May 1.