PLANNING, CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF

RURAL ROADS IN NEPAL

Rajendra Kumar Aryal

Abstract
Over the past 20 years much effort and many resources have been invested in the mid-hills of Nepal
for rural development programs. One of the major lessons learnt from those efforts was that there is
a large need of rural road network in the country for the overall economic development. The
government of Nepal has realized this need and put its major emphasis on rural road network
development as one of the important sectors within the framework of its Ninth Plan as well as its
decentralization efforts.

Road building, however, is a big challenge in Nepal, both technically and financially. Technically it
is difficult as the country has a very fragile mountain topography and a huge monsoon rainfall, and
financially, it is difficult since the country is one of the poorest countries in the world and the
available resources are very limited. Moreover, rampant poverty exists in rural Nepal, and a rural
road programme therefore should have the objectives of not only providing the access to the rural
populace, but also being a tool towards self-help capacity building and poverty alleviation for the
betterment of their socio-economic living conditions.

The paper tries to present the overall scenario of rural road development efforts in Nepal and an
innovative approach towards sustainable management of rural road asset in the country towards
sustainable livelihood of the rural poor.
I. Introduction
The road network in Nepal has a total length of 13,000 kilometers and is the most important
infrastructure asset of the country with an estimated replacement value of Rs. 68 billion (approx.
US$1 billion). Road transport is by far the most important mode of transportation and is
indispensable for unleashing the economic potentials and the political integration of the country.
Till the end of 1940s, trails used for human portage were the principal means of transport. After the
establishment of democracy in early 1950s Nepal was opened for the outside world and a major
highway linking the capital Kathmandu with its huge southern neighbor India was constructed.

Investments in transport infrastructure from the mid-1960s to 1980s focused on the construction of
new roads. The road network has expanded from a total length of about 2000 km of basic roads in
mid 1960s to a total length of about 15,000 km in 2000. A major proportion of this network was
rural roads consisting of district and village level roads. Despite efforts to extend the road network
throughout the country, 17 out of 75 districts are still inaccessible by motorable roads. Demand for
new road construction continues to be strong and successive governments in recent years have made
the extension of the network and the construction of new roads connecting all districts as their key
priorities in their development plans. The political decentralization process since 1992 has also
raised strong local demand for extension and upgrading of district and village level roads.

Table 1: Road Statistics 2000, by Surface Type and Ownership (in km)

Type of Road Ownership Black-top Gravel Earth Total

National Highway DoR 2,324 239 380 2,943
Feeder Roads DoR 805 500 729 2,034
District Roads DDCs 463 2,345 5,539 8,347
Urban Roads DoR/Municipalities 930 562 492 1,984
Total 4,522 3,646 7,140 15,308
For a country of about 147,000 sq. km, with dimensions of roughly 900 km by 160 km and an
estimated population of 22 million, Nepal’s road density is quite small, only about 9 km per 100 sq.
km with a coverage of about 6 km per 10,000 people. Nepal is hence one of the least accessible
countries in South Asia.

Construction of roads in Nepal is a challenge against the fragile mountainous terrain and water. As
one of the poorest countries in the world, there are always competing demands on the limited
resources of the country, resulting in hard budget constraints for the sector. The low traffic volume,
low economic activities and high operation and maintenance costs further limit the economic return
for the road projects. Despite these facts road construction has always been given utmost priority
and substantial investment has been made in the road sector giving special focus to the rural roads.

This paper exclusively deals with the planning, construction and management of rural roads thereby
excluding the highways, feeder roads and urban roads.

II. His Majesty's Government of Nepal 's Policy Context on Rural

Road Development
Lack of roads in the hills of Nepal is still a major constraint to social and economic development.
Considering the inaccessibility as a major drawback the government has now put its efforts in
developing the rural road sector by giving emphasis to the hilly districts. Recent data indicate that
substantial investment has been made in the rural transport sector.

The National Planning Commission has stated that in the next 20 years priority should be given to
construction of roads connecting district headquarters, agricultural and other roads connecting
production and market centers and tourist routes. It also aims at completing an additional 12,000 km
of roads, a significant proportion of which would be rural roads, by the end of Twelfth Plan (2013-
2107). The plans sounds somehow ambitious, however, considering the pivotal role of rural roads in
terms of access to markets and services with the reduction of transport costs and travel times, many
donors have also joined hands with the government in this very endeavor.

Some of the efforts the government has already made in this regard are summarized as follows:

1. The Ninth Plan

The current Ninth Plan (1998-2002) sets poverty alleviation as its prime objective and promises
concrete steps regarding the reduction of cost in construction and maintenance of the national
transport system, development of a complementary transport network, and construction of roads in
remote area to alleviate poverty and regional disparities, linking road to production and tourism
areas.

2. Priority Investment Plan (PIP)

In an effort to provide a rational basis for road sector planning, a PIP was developed with IDA
(International Development Agency, the World Bank) assistance in early 1997 as a master plan for
strategic road and rural road network for the period of 1997-2006. The PIP stressed the need of
decentralization of decision-making process at local level by capacity building of local government
entities, making them more responsible and accountable for the development of rural road network
thereby initiated a process of delegation of authority from the central level to the district level.

3. Agricultural Perspective Plan (APP)

The APP approaches the issue of rural road network development from an agricultural perspective.
It considers roads as one of the several priority inputs for agriculture. It analyses agricultural
productivity at the national level and identifies that the Terai districts provide a major contribution
to agricultural output. APP also gives priority to fill in the grid around the strategic road network
thereby focusing more on rural agricultural roads. In this context, APP envisaged establishing a new
department responsible for rural infrastructure with a particular focus on such rural agricultural
roads and the efforts have now materialized as a result of which a new Department of Local
Infrastructure and Agricultural Roads (DoLIDAR) was established in 1998 within the Ministry of
Local Development (MLD).

4. Decentralization and Local Governance Act 1999

The central government of Nepal has shifted many responsibilities to the locally elected district
authorities (DDCs) and village authorities (VDCs) under the decentralized framework. Along with
the responsibilities, the local authorities also obtain more resources from the center. In the course of
decentralization efforts a more updated and well-defined Local Self-Governance Act has also been
approved by the Parliament and this has been in enactment since May 1999. The Act intends to
increase the participation of local stakeholders in decision-making, local resource allocation and
mobilization, balanced development, equal distribution of benefits, and social equity. The Act
enables the local bodies to negotiate loans with various donors for their development efforts,
generate the resources locally (e.g., by collecting local taxes) and use the funds for local
development including infrastructures.

The lowest elected body in the district is the Village Development Committee (VDC.). The
District Development Committee (DDC) is the district government formed through indirect
election among the elected VDC representatives.
III. Concept of Rural Road Development
With those steps the government has shown a firm commitment towards development of a rural
road network in the country despite of the limited available resources. However, in order to meet
the growing demand for the roads in the rural area with limited available resources, an innovative
approach would thus be required. This would significantly improve access for a majority of the
rural population to service, market and trading centers within the coming years. Thereby reducing
transport costs and time for both people and goods, it constitutes a crucial precondition for rural
economic development.

Realizing the needs already in the late 80s, the governments of Germany and Switzerland promoted
an approach of labor-intensive, environment-friendly and affordable (low-cost) rural road
construction. The approach became so popular in Nepal that the journalists named it the "Green
Road Concept". A “Green Road” is one that is environmentally sound, built using participatory,
labor-intensive methods, and technically appropriate. Its goal is to conserve the delicate mountain
ecology. As the approach is labor-intensive, the local rural population draws direct short-term
benefits from the approach through off-farm employment generation. In mid-term, the improved
motorable access to remote areas provide better public and private services as well as reduce the
transport costs, which stimulates the rural economy significantly and creates new income generating
opportunities.

The major objectives of this innovative approach are:

• Development of a rural road network designed to meet the minimum traffic requirements for
districts, in order to reduce transportation costs;
• Involvement of local authorities and stakeholders right from the planning phase onwards, thus
supporting the government's decentralization efforts while promoting a sense of local-level road
ownership;
• Use of an environment-friendly road construction and maintenance technology that preserves
the natural environment against excessive erosion;
• Optimum mobilization of locally available resources in terms of labor, material and finances;
and
• Generation of short-term, off-farm employment opportunities using labor-intensive road
construction and maintenance techniques.

The basic features of this approach are described as follows:

1. Planning
In order to combine the local, district, regional and national level efforts to improve rural access, a
District Transport Master Plan (DTMP) is prepared that includes the views of the local level
through a participatory planning process. Decisions are made in a bottom-up manner through
political consensus.
While reaching this overall goal, several aspects are important to consider:
• The driving force behind the plan must be to facilitate agricultural development.
• The methodology behind the plan preparation should be systematic enough to take logical and
transparent decisions.
• The resulting plan must efficiently allocate and utilize scarce resources available for
transportation infrastructure; decisions taken should be strategic.
• At the same time, techniques used need to be simple enough to enable the plan preparation by
the districts' technical staff who are generally inexperienced in regional planning.
• Very importantly, political consensus on priority ranking, annual rolling planning for
construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of the rural road network, and available resources.

Roles of the key actors: Four key actors are involved in the process in the preparation of a DTMP.
• Legislative: The legislative body of the DDC, its DRCC consisting of representatives of
various political parties beside elected DDC Chairperson, Vice-chairperson and Members, shall
be the final decision-maker concerning the plan.
• Executive: The executive body of the DDC, a complementary committee consisting of
representatives of HMGN's line agencies and civil servants in DDC, carry out the planning and
provide options to the DRCC to aid its decision making.
• Judiciary: The Chief District Officer (CDO) shall play a significant role to help resolve the
conflicts at the local level itself, if any.
• Implementing: The implementing body, a DRTU under the leadership of DDC Engineer carry
out the preparation of the plan.

Fig. 1 represents the schematic diagram of the organization for the preparation of a District
Transport Master Plan (DTMP).

2. Implementation Arrangements
There are three basic aspects for implementation.

a) Technical Support
Since the local bodies mostly lack the technical capacity, an external support by an experienced
engineering consulting firm may be required for the successful implementation of such an approach.

b) Social Mobilisation Support

Social mobilization and self-help promotion are key aspects in this approach. Social support is
either provided by an NGO or the social wing of the same engineering consulting firm. “Social
Mobilisers” are deployed to carry out this activity. Some of the major features of the approach
under social mobilization are:
• Self-help capacity building: A focus of the approach is on local capacity building. Training
efforts are integrated into the construction work for the local people.
• Gender issues: This approach does not discriminate against women in either work or wages,
and instead encourages their involvement in the committees and training.
• Child labour issues: The road management system discourages employment of children below
16 years of age in several ways.
• Campaign against alcoholism and gambling: Since major road investment (65%-75%) goes
towards labour payments, and so the cash flows directly to the people. if precautionary
 measures are not taken, these earnings can result in social evils such as drinking, gambling, and
extravagant spending on consumption. Drinking and gambling are forbidden at construction
sites and labour camps.
• Voluntary labour contribution: It is a tradition in Nepal that the local people also contribute
voluntary labour for the development activities, especially for the socio-economic infrastructure
development. Social mobilisation also has the objective to efficiently mobilise the voluntary
labour at the local level.

c) Performance based work assignment

There are two main work assignment systems used in Nepal (i) labour payment without competitive
bidding, and (ii) assigning contractors (i.e. with competitive bidding).

The first system can be further divided into three methods, namely a muster-roll system, a lump-
sum piecework system, and payments based on work. Work assignment methods emphasise
performance-based compensation. A muster-roll approach is appropriate when high levels of
supervision are available, quality is particularly important, and in situations where time is not a
constraint. Labour payment systems based upon work measurement and valuation is appropriate in
larger scale programmes where fast progress is required and where an objective is employment
generation and poverty alleviation.

In cases of more complex works requiring external construction materials or equipment that require
specific professional experience (such as culvert and bridge building, gravelling), or in areas where
literally the local labor pool is non-existent, the contract system is acceptable.

3. Institutional Arrangements
Rural roads are best implemented in a decentralized manner in line with the government's
decentralization efforts. This means that overall authority and responsibility for planning,
construction and maintenance is given to the local communities in form of the User Committees.
Institutions like VDC, DDC, Ministry of Local Development (MLD) and donors assist and support
by providing resources and/or technical advice.

The User Committees can also be formed in different tiers, if necessary. For example a VDC can
constitute a User Committee for a VDC road programme under the chairmanship of a person it
considers the best. A User Committee can further form sub-committees for specific tasks (such as
materials or tool procurement, monitoring etc.) or sub-committees (or User Group) at ward or
community level. The sub-committees will be responsible to the User Committee that in turn will be
responsible to the VDC. This arrangement works best for a VDC-type road where the project is
confined to a single VDC.

Similarly a DDC can constitute a User Committee for DDC-level road. If there is more than one
road committee in the district, the DDC can also form DRCC to coordinate. This type of
arrangement works best for DDC-type road spanning several VDCs, or road programs supported by
donors working closely with the DDC. The User Committees of such projects can also form VDC
wise sub-committees for providing management support and such sub-committees become
responsible to the specific road User Committee.

4. Construction Technology
Basic features of the construction technology are as follows:

a) Environmental Study
The environmental protection act (EPA) 1996 of Nepal provides the basic legal framework for
environmental considerations in developing rural transport networks. Under this framework, an
initial environmental examination (IEE) or environmental impact assessment (EIA) is required to
ascertain the viability of a project from an environmental point of view. Rural roads are generally
localised and small in nature, but are obviously a part of the network. Therefore they fall under the
scope of the EPA. Since the approach incorporates environmental aspects right from the beginning,
proper preparation is probably the most promising mitigation measure in itself. At present rural road
projects are generally constructed by DDC and VDCs using local resources. This level would have
constrains in funding such studies. If funding is ensured by the government, the social and
environmental monitoring and evaluation system for agricultural and rural roads of DoLIDAR,
can be considered.

b) Mass Balancing
Mass balancing is the most crucial as well as the most difficult principle in the approach. The
conventional road construction practice of developing the road width in hills by full cutting and
throwing the excavated material downhill, causes great damage to the vegetation cover and
enhances gully formation and landslides. The technology thus used will be “cut-and-fill” rather than
“cut-and-throw”. For controlling the wastage of fill volume, dry stone or gabion retaining structures
are built on the valley side, which are mostly constructed by reusing the materials from excavation.
Preventive measures are adopted for causing minimum damages to the existing vegetation cover.

c) Bioengineering
Bioengineering is the use of live plants for engineering purposes to reduce slope instability and soil
erosion. The approach incorporates bioengineering as one of the important tools of environmental
conservation. In fact, growth of vegetation is a dynamic process rather than an inert one. Vegetation
tends to become stronger over time with its extended root systems that help stabilise the slopes. The
approach thus adopts bioengineering as a preventive measure rather than a curative one. A labour-
intensive bioengineering approach is adopted, which include incorporation of such readily available
indigenous skills and knowledge at the local level.

d) Proper Water Management

Construction of roads in Nepal is always a battle against water. Since proper water management is
one of the major means of road stability and environmental conservation, a proper water
management system has to be adopted. The causes of water induced problems in the road alignment
has to be carefully understood. Proper alignment selection, gradient, provision of side and cross
drains are the crucial aspects in designing.

e) Method of phased construction

The approach envisages a “phased construction” method. This term refers to a method of
constructing a road in different phases. The first phase refers to the opening of a trail, followed by a
gradual widening of the trail into a track, and finally the completion of a road to the required
engineering standards. Efficiency in construction is achieved by mobilising labourers
simultaneously at different sectors.

f) Staged construction
The rural roads in the hills are constructed for initial low traffic volume with available limited
funds. However, while constructing such roads, the concept of "staged construction" is applied. This
means a longer-term vision so that these roads can be gradually upgraded from a fair-weather
earthen road to an all-weather bituminous road if:
• the traffic volume increases and the existing roads are not in position to accommodate the
increased traffic volume, and
• the resources needed for construction and maintenance are available.
IV. Rural Road Economics

1. Construction Costs
Calculation and comparison of construction costs on the basis of actual implementation experience
is very complex because they depend on a variety of influencing factors such as, the selected road
standard; the selected alignment, the number of bridges and structures; the terrain and soil; the
employment system of the labourers and their motivation; the labourer’s daily wage; the quality of
the technical supervision, and the political and local interventions.

As per the data available on the basis of cost analysis mainly of the rural green roads from Palpa
and Dhading districts in Nepal, overall costs including service costs for technical support and social
mobilization have been calculated as about US$20,000 per kilometer. This calculation is done
purely on the actual experience from few case studies and no software (such as HDM-4) are used.

2. Identification of Benefits
The calculation of quantifiable benefits of remote areas by vehicle transport on new low-cost, low-
volume rural roads replacing the traditional traffic by porters and animals is relatively complex and
depends on a number of assessed data, which can vary considerably. New road access brings
fundamental changes in the types and level of economic activities overtime, which leads to the
establishment of new commercial centers.

Up to now, the economic benefits have not been systematically analyzed in detail, particularly the
benefits have not been calculated as means for justifications, because these roads were considered
as backbones of rural hill development. However, the following quantifiable and non-quantifiable
benefits were identified:

a) Quantifiable Benefits:
There are basically four types of quantifiable benefits from rural road projects:
• Transport Cost Savings: The transport cost savings” is the difference between transport costs
with, and without the road. When a new road is built, transport costs change to become vehicle
operating costs and passenger time costs replacing human and animal portage.
• Producer Surplus Benefit: This benefit is the net value of increased production as a result of
improved access to the area served by a new road. In general, the benefit can be considered in
terms of agricultural production.
• Appreciation of Land Values: As soon as a road is planned or comes under construction, land
values in the adjacent areas increase by many folds, particularly in potential commercial areas.
• Local Employment Generation: Local people are directly employed during construction and
about 65% of the construction costs are paid to them.
b) Non-quantifiable Benefits
There are a number of direct as well as indirect social benefits, which cannot be as easily quantified
and calculated in terms of money. These are:
• Faster, easier and cheaper access to markets and goods providing new options for perishable
products.
• Faster and easier access to public and private services such as education, health, government
offices, saving and credit banks, etc.
• Longer stay of professionals, officers, teachers, doctors, etc. to their rural duty areas as a result
of easier access to their homes and markets, leading to a higher quality of education, health
status, etc.
• Wider selection and more reliable supply of consumer goods.
• Awakening of the rural population out of psychological isolation and remoteness into
connection with the outside world.
• Access provision for other rural infrastructure works, such as irrigation schemes, water supply,
electricity lines and hydropower stations, etc.
• Generation of new micro-enterprises generating off-farm employment.

V. Financing of Rural Roads

Resource mobilization is always crucial for the implementation of rural road programs. A best way
of solving this constraint would be the pooling of the financial resources together into one “basket”.
Local and district level resources are increasingly made available in form of various grants. In
order to meet the need to extend the rural road network significantly within a satisfactory time
frame, additional external financial resources including the donors’ fund are required. Creation of a
matching fund by collecting resources from local, district and central level seems to be a promising
direction. The provision made and authority delegated to the locally elected bodies by the Local
Governance Act is another milestone in this endeavor.

VI. Maintenance Management

Maintenance is always a crucial phenomenon that is directly linked with sustainability. Experience
has shown that the rural roads could be maintained provided there is a proper system in place and
clear definition of ownership exists.

1. Minimisation of Maintenance Requirements

Road deterioration cannot be stopped, but can be minimised. With minimal regular maintenance
requirements, the upkeep of the road can become affordable. Several main policies contribute to the
minimisation of maintenance:

• Controlling road use during rainy season: Low-volume earthen roads can be damaged to a
large extent that can lead towards tremendous maintenance costs when vehicles are allowed to
operate during the rainy season (June-August). The surface has to be upgraded if the road has to
be made all weather road. If not, some mechanism has to be put in place to stop vehicular
movement during rains.

• Controlling Axle Load: A mechanism has to be put in place to control the axle load to
minimise the damages due to heavy loads.

• User education and enforcement of rules: If users are made aware of the consequences of the
issues causing road damages, often problems can be avoided. Rules and regulations need to be
framed as per the requirement.

2. Ownership and Sustainable Maintenance Funding

The biggest challenge in Nepal for rural road maintenance is the institution of a sustainable
maintenance programme and clearly defined road ownership. Sustainable maintenance requires
right policies, sufficient knowledge and awareness about the resources required and money as well
as clear road ownership that defines responsibility for maintenance. There are certain resources
available at local level such as central block grants to the DDC, VDCs’ annual fund, locally
generated resources, and constituency funds for the members of parliament, which could be
efficiently managed in form of a “basket fund” for maintenance. Local taxes generated by the DDCs
could also be partly used for the road maintenance. Voluntary labour contribution could also be
efficiently tapped for maintenance activities as well. The collection of user taxes (toll taxes) will
also be another source for maintenance.

VII. Road Fund and its Scope for Rural Road Network
In order to address the problem of chronic insufficient funding for maintenance, a mechanism for
earmarking road user revenues for maintenance is considered prudent. In this context, a more
substantial approach to capture additional revenues for the sector is being developed through the
enactment of a Nepal Road Boards Act and establishment of a road fund board. The Roads Board
Bill has been already approved by the cabinet and has been now submitted to the parliament for
approval. Once approved this becomes an Act and it will assist in establishing an adequate and
stable source of funding for maintenance and will strengthen the effectiveness of road maintenance
expenditures. A joint government/private sector road board will be established to oversee the
expenditures of road user funds for the maintenance of both strategic and the rural road network.
The Board will manage the road fund and properly allocate the resources for different roads for
maintenance activities.

VIII. Donors' Efforts in Enhancing the Concept of Decentralized,

Participatory, Environment-friendly and Labor-intensive Rural
Road Development
Realizing the growing demands of the country the donors have joined in hands with the government
in its efforts of rural road network development. Major emphasis is given to the rural road sector,
mostly focusing on the participatory, labor-intensive, and environment-friendly rural road
construction in several districts in Nepal. The World Bank has even fostered a joint collaboration
with the GTZ in one of its projects. Efforts are also underway in joint collaboration and partnership
among the donors in other projects. A new Nepal Forum for Rural Transport Development
(NFRTD) has been formed under the chairmanship of the National Planning Commission, which is
facilitated by ITDG, an UK-based NGO. Table 2 gives a brief overview of the ongoing rural road
projects in the country. The World Bank convenes the thematic donors’ group meeting on
transportation in which various donors such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Department
for International Development (DfID), German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA), Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), United Nations
Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)/UNDP, and The World Bank participate and discuss various
transport issues, exchange information and experience covering the rural transport sector as well.

IX. Present Constraints

Though a lot of efforts are underway, there are still problems and constraints, which could be
briefly explained as follows:

1. Planning
It is evident that the local stakeholders are to be involved right from the planning stage and it is the
key factor for sustainability. The present exercise has not been able to adequately deal with the local
stakeholders, neither in planning nor in implementation.

2. Technical
The technical capacity existing at the DDC level is relatively weak. DDCs lack knowledge and
experience in district road planning, contracting and supervising, construction/rehabilitation and
maintenance as well as in institutionalizing regular maintenance work. The engineer at the district
level is posted from the central level and does not generally report to the DDC representatives.
Moreover, s/he is much more concerned about her/his career, comfort and promotion rather than the
development activities at the district level. On the other hand s/he is overloaded with the
responsibilities of the whole infrastructure development responsibilities and the incentives available
at the district level are also not very attractive. The DDC engineers also lack the capacity to
integrate social dimensions into the technology, which is very crucial in rural road programs.

3. Institutional
Decentralization of political power is at the very beginning stage in Nepal. The institutional
constraints for the implementation of the decentralization policy are the lack of total support and
commitment from all levels. The enforcement of the Local Self-governance Act fully depends on
the central level since the central level channels the funds to the local level. A high degree of
commitment is thus also required at the central level, which normally does not exist. The
government’s bureaucratic procedures are lengthy and time consuming due to which the channeling
the funds to the districts are often delayed. Local resource generation mechanism is also at a very
premature stage and it will take quite some time to institutionalize it.

4. Political
Development efforts in Nepal are very much politicized and do not sometimes reflect the real
interest of the local people. The District Development Council is a political institution. Local
political rivalries and frictions are natural and this constrains the equitable distribution of resources
received from the Government to local bodies. Some locations may be favored at the cost others
depending on alignments and preferences of the leaders of the dominant political parties. Political
leaders also often prefer constructing new roads rather than concentrating on maintenance because
of their own political interests.

X. Conclusions
Development of the rural road network in a country like Nepal is inevitable. The government is
committed to connect all the 75 districts in the country with motorable feeder roads and a rural road
network in view of social justice and fulfillment of the basic needs. Road building in hilly terrain is
always vulnerable in terms of slope stability and environmental protection, and it results in high
maintenance costs. Rural roads are seen as a strong tool towards self-help promotion, agricultural
development, local employment generation and eventually poverty alleviation. Nepal still needs at
least 15,000 km of rural roads in the coming 20 years. Keeping in view the limited available
resources, social objectives towards poverty alleviation, and ownership towards sustainability
aspects the innovative approach of participatory, labor-intensive, environment-friendly, and low–
cost approach (so called the “Green Road Concept”) would be the best one to be applied. People
sometimes however interpret this approach of road building as contradicting to the conventional
approach adopted by the Department of Roads. But the same engineering principles guide both
approaches and the difference lies only in the objectives and the implementation modality. More
attention towards environmental protection, access for community participation and common
objective of poverty alleviation as per the Ninth Plan definitely bring both the approaches close to
each other.

Efforts are to be made to enhance the planning and technical capacity of the locally elected
governments. Since the decentralization efforts of the government is still at a very premature stage a
lot of commitment and efforts would also be required from all levels, specifically in decentralized
fiscal transfers, local resources mobilization, transparency in decision-making and implementation,
and effective monitoring and evaluation. Major focus should also be given to the maintenance
management since it is the most crucial factor towards sustainability.
Author's Biography:

RAJENDRA K. ARYAL
Civil Engineer with 8 years of professional experience with expertise in roads, bridges,
markets and residential buildings. Mr. Aryal's experience mainly includes design, monitoring,
management, and trouble shooting of various civil engineering projects. He has worked for
the institutions such as GTZ and UNCDF in management position overseeing the programs
related to rural and urban infrastructures. Mr. Aryal, a Nepalese national living in
Kathmandu, speaks English, German, Hindi and Nepali.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Programme Officer, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) from July 1999 To
Date and responsible mainly for the following:
• Implementation, coordination, monitoring and overall administration of the UNCDF Country
programme that covers a local development project, a feeder roads project, a wholesale
market project, a small marketing infrastructure project and an irrigation project,
administering and managing a portfolio of about US$20 million.
• Liaison with the government agencies, and other partnering institutions such as UNDP,
UNOPS, FAO, etc.
• Maintenance of daily communication with the headquarters and project partners
• Participation in several missions from headquarters, writing of mission reports and quarterly
progress reports for the headquarters
• Advocacy and presentation of UNCDF programs in several thematic donor forums
• Preparation of programme budgets together with the project staff and programme support
budget for the operation and maintenance of country office
• Appointed as a Deputy Warden for the UN Disaster Management Team for a cluster
covering a wide area and assisted in the preparation of UN Inter-Agency Emergency
Preparedness and Response Plan.

Programme Officer, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) From Mid-1997 to Mid-1999 and
responsible mainly for the following:
• Overall programme planning, formulation, implementation and monitoring of rural
infrastructure component with a particular focus on participatory, labor-based and
environment-friendly roads, trains, and trail bridges besides other social and economic
infrastructures, and backstopping support to the development of rural infrastructure master
plan in several districts in Nepal
• Backstopping support to the natural resources management activities, such as bio-gas
support and community-forestry programme
• Carrying out of short mission to various programme district and preparation of mission
reports for the country office as well as headquarters
 • Evaluation of three-year performance of Regional Collaborative Programme of the
International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) on behalf of the
governments of Germany and Switzerland.

Senior Civil Engineer, ITECO Nepal (P) Ltd., a sister concern of ITECO AG, Switzerland
From 1993 to Mid-1997 (with a break of 2.5 years) and responsible mainly for:
• Overseeing, monitoring and backstopping various highways, feeder roads, and bridge
projects funded by bilateral and multilateral donors that included ADB, The World bank,
KfW, DfID, etc. in Nepal. Mostly worked as a trouble shooter for the projects
• Coordination with the government agencies and donor agencies

Transportation Engineer, Department of Roads, Government of Nepal from 1992 to End-1992

and responsible mainly for:
Overall administration, budgeting, implementation, monitoring of highways and rural roads within
a district in Nepal.

Civil Engineer, Integrated Consultants Nepal (P.) Ltd. from 1991 to End-1991 and responsible
for:
Two irrigation projects, and storm water drainage system design for three municipalities in Nepal.

EDUCATION

B.E. Civil Engineering from Regional Engineering College Trichy, India 1991
M.E. Geotechniques and Infrastructure Engineering from University of Hannover, Germany,
1996.

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

Member of the Nepal Engineers' Association

Member of Nepal Engineering Council
Founder Member of the Society of Nepal-German Academicians
References

Book
1. Department of Roads, Road Maintenance Management and Finance Reform in Nepal,
2000.
2. His Majesty’s Government of Nepal, Local Self-Governance Act, 1998.
3. The World Bank, Nepal Public Expenditure Review, 2000.
4. W. P. Meyer, R. Aryal, B.N. Acharya and B. Karmacharya, Green Road Concept: A
State-of-the-Art Report, GTZ/SDC, 1999.
5. W.P. Meyer, R. Aryal, B.N. Acharya and B. Karmacharya, Green Road Concept: Best
Practices Report, GTZ/SDC, 1999.
6. W.P. Meyer, R. Aryal, B.N. Acharya and B. Karmacharya, Green Road Concept: A
Training Concept Document, GTZ/SDC, 1999.
7. W.P. Meyer, R. Aryal, B.N. Acharya and B. Karmacharya, Green Road Concept:
Workshop Consolidation Report, GTZ/SDC, 1999.

Papers
1. R. Aryal, Concept of Rural Infrastructure Development in a Rural Development
Programme, GTZ, 1999.

Project Reports
1. Department for International Development (DfID), Inception Report on Rural Access
Programme, 2000.
2. G. Mallik, Assessment of Hill Transport Component, Upper Sagarmatha Agricultural
Development Project, ADB, 1998.
3. Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), Inception Report on District Road
Support Programme, 2000.

Journals
1. Forum News, International Forum for Rural Transport and Development, UK, 2000.
Acronyms and Abbreviations
ADB Asian Development Bank
DoR Department of Roads
DDC District Development Committee
DfID Department for International Development
DRCC District Road Coordination Committee
DRTU District Road Technical Unit
GTZ German Technical Cooperation
HMGN His Majesty's Government of Nepal
IDA International Development Agency of The World Bank Group
ITDG Intermediate Technology Development Group
JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency
KfW German Bank for Reconstruction and Development
LDO Local Development Officer
MLD Ministry of Local Development
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NPC National Planning Commission
SDC Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation
TA Technical Assistance
UC User Committee
UG User Groups
UNCDF United Nations Capital Development Fund
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
VDC Village Development Committee
WB The World Bank
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 Table 2: brief overview of the ongoing rural road projects in Nepal
S. Donors Project Name P ro j ect O ut p ut s Location (districts) Amount Start Comple
No. (in million Date tion
US$) Date
1 ADB Rural • 250 km of fair weather rural roads Baglung, Tanahun, Kavre 17 and 1996 12/02
Infrastructure • labor-based and environment-friendly approach to rural HMG
Development roads construction and maintenance contribution
Project million
Upper • Improved motorable access to rural areas at relatively Khotang, Okhaldhunga Approx. 4
Sagarmatha low cost +TA
Agricultural • Building roads without damaging the environment
Development • Mobilization of local people in organizing and
Project managing the infrastructures
2 DfID Rural Access • Review impact of rural access improvements on poor Up to 3 districts in 35 09/99 2006
Programme people and review of needs and priorities for improved Bhojpur area and 3 in
access in up to 3 districts in east and 3 districts in west west and far west region
and far west of Nepal
• Assessment of institutional capability to deliver
improved rural access in identified districts
• Report on possibilities for donor coordination
• Outline plan for implementation
• Evaluation plan and baseline data for programme
districts
• Assessment of environmental issues relating to the
implementation plans
3 GTZ Rural • Construction of rural “Green Roads” Gorkha, Lamjung, N/A 1996 2001
Development • Successful operation and maintenance by responsible Sankhuwasabha
Programme owners
• Self-help capacity development of local institutions
4 SDC District Roads • District road planning/management by DDCs Kavre, Sindhupalchowk, 1.455 + TA 04/99 03/02
Support • Prepare district transport master plan Dolakha, Ramechhap,
Programme • Enhance capacity to implement, develop appropriate Sindhuli, Okhaldhunga
technology, methods and system, maintenance system,
training, awareness, building, policy development and
dissemination
• Support in donor coordination at central level
5 WB Rural Maintenance and upgrading of district roads Kapilbastu, Rupandehi, 5 01/00 12/03
Infrastructure Training in labor-intensive road construction and Nawalparasi, Syangja,
Project maintenance for district and MLD staff, consultants and Palpa, Kaski, Dhading,
contractors Sankhuwasabha