Nepal’s trade and business sectors bear high cost of transportation resulting from poor road quality, an under-performing trucking industry, and inadequate road coverage. Regular road maintenance has suffered from inadequate resources and methods not consistent with international best practices.
The USD 54.9 million Road Maintenance Project (RMP) aims to strengthen the quality of Nepal’s Strategic Road Network through technical assistance for building capacity of the Department of Roads (DoR) and Roads Board Nepal (RBN), road maintenance works on up to 130 km of the strategic road network and a matching fund to encourage the expansion of Nepal’s road maintenance budget.
The RMP will comply with all GoN and MCC policies and be mindful of existing international technical, environmental and social standards, and best practices. The two major activities under RMP are technical assistance and strategic roads maintenance.
Technical Assistance
The Technical Assistance Activity will enhance capacities of the DoR and RBN on road maintenance planning, assessment, and implementation of routine and periodic maintenance works.
Strategic Road Maintenance Works
The Strategic Road Maintenance Works Activity will complement and build upon the Technical Assistance and includes two sub-activities:
Pavement Recycling: RMP will adopt and introduce new pavement improvement technologies, particularly, the Full Depth Reclamation (FDR) and Superior Performing Asphalt Pavement (Superpave). This sub-activity will be undertaken using new technology, which has the potential to address some of the issues associated with carrying out works on narrow roads, with traffic congestion, difficult work conditions and extended construction time. This sub-activity tested and evaluated as part of project preparation to ensure that the technology is tested before Entry into Force (EIF) of the Compact. The test results will inform the program design for the planned Strategic Road Maintenance Works.
Matching Fund: The MCC fund will be used to establish a matching fund to provide two USD for every one USD the GoN spends above its current average annual amount for periodic road maintenance up to a total of USD 45 million over three years. This matching fund is to be used incentivize additional GoN spending on road maintenance and will be used to fund road maintenance work.
