After significant delays and generally slow progress, Nepal’s Prime Minister has said work is finally set to start on key heritage sites destroyed by last year’s devastating earthquake.

The massive quake, which left more than 8,000 people dead – injuring a further 21,000 – took a massive human and cultural toll on Nepal, which is still trying to recover from one year on.

When the quake struck on 25 April 2015, more than 600 historic structures were destroyed, along with more than half-a-million homes.

Speaking at the 17th century Anantapur temple, which was among the heritage sites damaged as a result of the 7.8 magnitude quake, Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli offered prayers and said that work would begin on rebuilding the temple in addition to three other sites in Kathmandu, which included the palaces and temples at Kathmandu's Durbar Square and heritage sites in Patan and Bhaktapur.

Despite foreign donors pledging a figure thought to be around US$4.1bn (€3.6bn, £2.8bn) towards reconstruction of Nepal’s homes and historic structures, very little work has actually been done to repair homes or heritage sites. International aid groups have blamed the delay on bureaucratic wrangling, with the government taking months to set up its National Reconstruction Authority, which was only formed in December 2015 – eight months after the earthquake struck.

The Prime Minister commented that work would progress quickly, also saying that it was a huge task that “would require time”. In addition to the reconstruction of the damaged heritage sites, work has also started on houses in 10 districts within Kathmandu.

Among the heritage sites damaged, Durbar Squares of Patan, Hanuman Dhoka (Kathmandu) and Bhaktapur have taken the most damage, with the sites almost fully destroyed. By contrast, the World heritage sites of the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha, and Chitwan National Park were left relatively unscathed by the massive quake and aftershocks.