Nepal is a Mountainous Country Situated in the Heart of the Himalaya

7/31/2019 Nepal is a Mountainous Country Situated in the Heart of the Himalaya

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Nepal is a mountainous country situated in the heart of the Himalaya. This youngmountain chain is also famous worldwide for its very active tectonics.Furthermore, it lies in an area of strong monsoon precipitation, with the rainfalldistribution being such that over 90 percent occurs within a short three months.Extreme rainfall events are very common which can bring over 400 mm of rainwithin 24 hours. Thus, these geological and climatic factors makethe mountain slopes of Nepal highly vulnerable for to rainfall triggered landslides.Construction of roads in the mountains of Nepal is complicated because of steepslopes, thick soil profiles, weak rock mass and torrential rainfall due to themonsoon. This paper is intended to describe the engineering geological issues oflow cost roads in Nepal with some illustrations. Later in the paper, some mitigationmeasures used to stabilize the slopes are also evaluated with some illustrations.Construction of roads in the mountains of Nepal is quite complicatedbecause of steep slopes, thick soil profiles, weak rockmass and the extreme rainfall

of the monsoon season. In the name of low cost, many roads of Nepal do nothave any standard engineering structures. As a result, low cost road constructionand maintenance programs are widely affected by landslide and debris flowtriggered by monsoon rainfall. Generally,shallow failure occurred along theroadside, both in uphill as well as downhill slopes, are major geological problemsof roads of Nepal. Although, cost effective techniques are very important for adeveloping country like Nepal, experience of Nepal reveals that low costroads are not the best solution for sustainable development of underdeveloped

countries. Nepals total road network and density are low and only43% of the

population has access toall-weather roads In the last ten years, road constructionprojects in Nepal have been considered a major part of infrastructure development.

The growth in roads shows an exponential increase from 376 km in 1950 to 20,600

km (including usable rural roads) by 2007 (a period of 58 years). Even now the

road density is low, about 6 km/100 sq km. Most of the roads (either rural roads or

national highways) in Nepal are low cost roads, not built to international standard.

Nowadays, there are many projects of district or rural road construction. These

roads are being constructed with the participation of the people but very

littletechnical supervision. Many international donor agencies are providing funds

for local governments to construct roads. Some of the major donor agencies for

low cost road projects in Nepal are the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World

Bank (WB), UK Department of International Development (DFID), the Swiss

Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Deutsche Gesellschaft fr

Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ, an internationalcooperation enterprise from


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Germany), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the United

Nations World Food Program (WFP). High-paid short term consultants from

developed countries work on these road construction projects and provide

engineering as well as socioeconomic consulting service for low cost road

construction. But, most of the time, international consultants only suggesteconomical road construction practices rather than sustainable road construction

methods suited to the highly dynamic Himalayan environment. It is not unusual for

the total cost of a rural low cost road project to be lower than one days travel and

daily allowance for an international consultant. For example, for 2009/10, the

District Development Committee of Dolakha district has approved 100 low cost

rural road projects and most of the rural roads are 10 to 15 km long whereas the

budget sanctioned for each road project is only about US$270!! (District Technical

Officer, Dolakha district, pers. comm.). In fact, road construction practices inNepal are mostly guided by the desire of the donor agencies and the interests of

local political leaders. This is partly attributable to the lack of uniform and

mandatory national standards and guidelines. Many stretches of road do not have

any standard engineering structures and the roads are usually constructed on side

slopes requiring cut and fill. Locally available materials are used to protect the cut

slope, usually dry stone retaining walls or bioengineering are used for protecting

slopes. In recent years, district or rural road construction projects have already

grown by 11% annually. A related fact is that more than 50% of the Village

Development Committees (VDCs) from all over Nepal have a User Committee for

rural road construction. Nowadays, many slopes in the mid-hills are dissected by

earthen roads and, due to the lack of engineering standards; these roads are almost

unusable for vehicle movement. As a result, low cost roads are prone to shallow

and deep seated landslides during the monsoon. The poor engineering conditions

of the roads hampers the delivery of social services in the remote hill and

mountainous districts and directly or indirectly affects the countrys economic

development. Lack of connectivity in presence of low cost road projects are major

impediments to the development of Nepal. In Nepal, about one third of the total

road length is earthen roads (33%), with the remainder of the network comprising

gravel roads (22%) and bitumen sealed roads (45%). The Nepal Road Standards

classifies roads as follows:

National Highways connecting the length and width of the country


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Feeder Roads providing access to important trade centres and districtheadquarters from the national highways

District Roads providing access between a districts headquarters and its tradecentres. Urban Roads within the city area Rural Roads to provide access to rural settlements and agricultural centresNational highways and feeder roads are included in the Strategic Road Network(SRN) under the jurisdiction of the Department of Roads (DoR); the SRNcomprises nearly one third of the total road length. The remaining two thirds areconsidered as district roads, rural roads, urban roads, agricultural roads andcapillary roads which are under the jurisdiction of Department of LocalInfrastructure Development and Agricultural Roads (DoLIDAR)and local bodies (District Development Committees, Village Development

Committees and Municipalities). Major highways like Prithivi Highway,Tribhuvan Highway, Siddhartha Highway, and East-West Highway arecontinuously in the maintenance phase. New highways likeDhulikhel-Sindhuli Road, Chhinchu-Jajarkot Road, Surkhet-Jumla Road, Katari-OkhaldhungaRoad, Mid-Hills Roads and Beni-Jomsom are in the constructionphase.

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Nepal is a Mountainous Country Situated in the Heart of the Himalaya