MANSEHRA, Oct 7: The Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) has so far reconstructed 67 per cent of the infrastructure in 10 different sectors badly hit by October 2005 earthquake in five districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The ‘overall progress summary report’ issued by the Provincial Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority on 8th anniversary of the earthquake tragedy claimed that the Erra had completed 67 per cent infrastructure. Last year, the Erra had stated to have completed 64 per cent work.

Five districts, including Mansehra, Abbottabad, Battagram, Kohistan and Shangla were badly hit in the earthquake and a total of 6,887 schemes were destroyed of which only 4,609 could be completed till now.

As many as 37,000 people had perished and another 40,573 sustained critical injuries while 395,907 houses were destroyed in the earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale. According to the report, 50 per cent of the reconstruction work has been completed in education sector, as 1,454 of 2,909 schemes/educational institutions were rebuilt. In health sector, reconstruction work was completed on 80 of total 147 schemes.

In environment sector, 179 of total 338 buildings/schemes could be rebuilt. In governance sector, 73 per cent reconstruction work could be completed, while in livelihood sector a total of 906 buildings were destroyed and 532 had been rebuilt till date.

Work completed in other sectors includes 29 per cent in power sector, 59 per cent in transport sector and 99 per cent in water and sanitation sector. However, none of the schemes could be completed as yet in the social protection sector.

The district-wise reconstruction report reveals that Mansehra was the hardest hit in the 2005 earthquake where 72 per cent reconstruction had been completed as of total 2,698 schemes destroyed in the tragedy 1,953 could be completed.

The number of completed schemes so far of those destroyed – in bracket – in other districts include 853 (1,250) in Abbottabad, 853 (1,313) Battagram, 261 (787) Kohistan and 839 (557) in Shangla.

When contacted, director general of Perra Kamran Zeb said that the shortage of funds was a big reason for the slow pace of reconstruction work during last year. He said that the Erra had Rs1.37 billion liabilities of contractors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone. “If funds are made available we can complete the remaining projects within the shortest possible time,” he said.