Training of Trainers on earthquake resilient construction

GANGTOK, 25 Nov: State Level Training of Trainers Workshop was conducted on 22 November with the objective to provide refresher training to 100 participants mostly the Assistant Engineers and Junior Engineers who are implementing the Reconstruction of Earthquake Damaged Rural Houses (REDRH) project. The Chief Engineer, RMDD along with his technical team from the RM&DD Head Office functioned as the master trainers for this workshop.
The Rural Management and Development Department (RMDD) is implementing the REDRH Project with an aim to reconstruct the 7,972 houses fully and severely damaged by the earthquake in 2011.
As per a press release, the project aims to change the construction practice permanently, recognising that earthquake-resilient house construction will only become common if the right technology is locally available, widely known, culturally accepted and competitively priced. The project has been mentoring local masons (raj mistri) and their assistants (mistri) to provide hands-on design and construction assistance directly to homeowners. Consequently, more than 200 engineers and 500 masons and their assistants now have the expertise to build earthquake resistant houses.
In order to further strengthen this capacity building initiative and train a further 1,000 masons in all corners of the State, 31 Mason Training Workshops are to be conducted in all the Blocks of the State. These workshops are funded under the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF), Land Revenue and Disaster management Department.
During the workshop, the REDRH Mason Training Handbook, developed in English, Nepali and Hindi were distributed along with the CD containing the video clippings on the lessons learnt and common pitfalls during construction. All the AEs, JEs, DE (Zilla), GVAs and ADC (Development) attended the workshop and actively participated in the discussions.