Background

From May 2015 to April 2018, the Ministry of Urban Development (hereinafter referred to as “MoUD”) of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal (hereinafter referred to as “Nepal”) implemented the “Project for the Assessment of Earthquake Disaster Risk for the Kathmandu Valley” with the cooperation of Japan International Cooperation Agency (hereinafter referred to as “JICA”). The results of the risk assessment project revealed that if central Nepal south scenario earthquake would happen, more than 270,000 buildings (approximately 62%) would be damaged and more than 1,200,000 people (approximately 42% of the population) would be forced to evacuate in the Kathmandu Valley. This shows that the construction of earthquake-resistant buildings is inevitable to reduce the risk against future earthquake damages. Facing hazards and risks, the government of Nepal has drafted the “National Plan of Action for Safer Building Construction: NaPA” and makes the effort to mainstream
disaster-resilient buildings in 20 years.

In August 2020, the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (hereinafter referred to as “DUDBC”) has revised the Nepal National Building Code (hereinafter referred to as “NNBC”) 105: Seismic Design of the Buildings in Nepal, and has been enhancing regulations for compliance of building code in new buildings. However, in the Kathmandu Valley, while the mainstream structure of new buildings after the 2015 earthquake has shifted from masonry construction to reinforced concrete (RC) structure, constructions have been different from building design drawings in many cases. This is mostly due to lack of awareness and knowledge regarding legal compliance among the building owners and contractors. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the capacity of design checking and construction inspection by the municipalities, capacity of supervision by the architect and engineers, capacity of quality control by the contractors, and the awareness of stakeholders.

To contribute to improve above situation, the Nepal government requested the Japanese government for the Project. Following the request, JICA implemented the detailed planning survey from February to September 2020. Subsequently, JICA discussed the framework of the Project based on the request and survey result, and concluded the Record of Discussions (hereinafter referred to as “R/D”) related to the Project with MoUD in November 2020. In line with the R/D, the Project is a technical cooperation project that aims to establish a mechanism of building code compliance for safer building construction against earthquakes.

​Outline of the Project
Based on the R/D of “The Project for the Promotion of Nepal National Building Code Compliance for Safer Building Construction” (hereinafter referred to as “the Project”), the expected outputs and project purpose will be achieved through the implementation of activities indicated in the Project Design Matrix (hereinafter referred to as “PDM”), with MoUD as the implementing agency. The outline of the Project is shown in the table below