Kathmandu January 19:

Huge quantity of bricks readied to be baked in altogether 62 brick kilns at Bhaktapur has been damaged by the incessant rainfall in the past two days. The rainfall incurred the damages to around one million pieces of raw bricks amounting to Rs 90 million, informed Bhaktapur Brick Factories Entrepreneurs Association’s President Natibhai Hyomba. Hyomba shared, “More than 80 per cent of raw bricks readied to burn was ruined by the rain. Furthermore, the rainfall that began since Thursday night made it difficult to protect the furnace in the brick kiln.” In lack of adequate raw bricks to be baked and burned, there are only two options: whether let the fire be doused or keep the fire burning with the help of coals which would obviously increase the production cost. Nevertheless, he assured that it would not lead to hike of bricks’ price in the immediate future as they have had enough of old stock of bricks to cater to the market demand for some time. Given the grim scenario, he appealed to the local municipality and government to consider subsidizing the tax for the brick entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs apart, the labourers working in the kiln have also borne the brunt of damages on bricks as they have to bear 33 per cent of the loss as per the prevailing regulations while rest other 67 per cent will be borne, according to him. Ram Bahadur BK, one of the labourers, bemoaned that the rainfall and the subsequent damages on the bricks had caused them financial loss.