Nepal is a small country with scenic beauties scattered all over its landform: the mountains, the high hills and the plains. The biodiversity that exists across its narrow width is vast, too. But this same geographical diversity also makes development of road transport tricky.Because of its agro-based economy, the country lacks adequate resources for development of its roads. Since the nation is yet to enter the era of industrialization, government revenue is small. This has caused a dependency on donor funding. Like all other developing nations, Nepal faces scarcity of resources for development as well as maintenance of its road network. So the pace of development of this network is dictated by the availability of resources.
Nepal has a diverse terrain, with altitudes varying from 100 meters to 8848 meters over a short stretch of less than 200 km. The steep slopes and fragile mountains create severe problems, both during construction and operation of roads. Flash-floods generated by intense rainfalls are common. This has triggered many landslides, washed out roads and many bridges at regular intervals.
Most domestic airports in Nepal are below international standard, and aviation is rudimentary. In order to make air transport safe, regular, widely available and reliable, as called for in the Air Policy (2006), there is a need to expand infrastructure and develop high-traffic airports. The recent earthquakes hampered air transport for many days.
Nepal is also facing a brain drain, resulting in lack of experienced manpower for infrastructure development. It has become difficult to get experienced engineers in the local market for infrastructure development projects.
The enthusiasm for road construction shown by the local people is exemplary, but their efforts are shadowed by lack of necessary technical support during construction. In fact, most local roads are not supervised by engineers. As a result, only one-third of the local road lengths are operational. Instead of using labor based techniques, people have found it easier and faster to use bulldozers and excavators for road construction, which is damaging the environment.
Nepal has a steep terrain unsuitable for railways. It is only the southern plains where the gradient is favorable. But these areas have numerous river crossings requiring huge investments on bridges. There is a possibility of railway tracks in hilly terrains on river banks or through the construction of tunnels. The experience of Nepali Engineers to construction and maintenance of railways and tunnels is negligible. They need adequate trainings in this regard. The maintenance of roads damaged by the series of earthquakes has now become a new challenge.
Nepal has been through a prolonged internal conflict, limiting its resource mobilization and construction. Now the conflict over the new constitution means that the country will have to wait for some for time before it can seriously embark on infrastructure development.
There is a focus on poverty reduction through infrastructure development. Many experiments in this regard have taken place. The results are mixed. For local roads which can be developed without any time constraint, labor-based approaches work. So far as central road network is concerned, there is a time pressure and labor-based approaches are unsuitable.
Road transport is also seen as vital to poverty reduction. In recognition of this fact, people in remote villages deprived of motor access have started pouring their development resources to make new roads. The enthusiasm to road development is exemplary. Donor support is increasing. The private sector is also interested in investing in road sector.
There are some constraints, including funding. Haphazard and non-engineered constructions have raised serious concerns about the sustainability of already opened tracks. But it is clear that the national priority of poverty reduction cannot be achieved unless we have adequate, safe and sound road transport.
The author is a roads and transport engineer
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