The World Bank has agreed to provide US$35 million to Nepal in grant for the development of rural road infrastructure and economic reform. Two separate agreements were signed between the Bank and the Nepal government on Monday.
Under the agreement, $32 million will be provided for the renovation and upgrading of over 4,500 km of rural roads, trails and tracks in 20 districts. The agreement also includes construction of some 350 suspension trail bridges while some amount of the grant will go into the maintenance of the bridges and trails destroyed by the Maoist insurgents.
More than 15 of the 75 districts in Nepal are still untouched by highways. Sixty percent of the road network in the country and almost all rural roads are dry-season tracks, which cannot be used during the rainy season.
Likewise, nearly $3 million will be financed on Nepal’s comprehensive reform agenda, which includes, among others, strengthening of homegrown reform efforts in areas of public sector capacity, social inclusion and governance.
The Bank said that with this grant it was trying to help the government implement “innovative and indigenous solutions to Nepal’s problems, using qualified manpower from the public and private sectors, as well as the diaspora, wherever possible”