Bridges Improvement and Maintenance Program

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The development objective of the Bridges Improvement and Maintenance Program Project for Nepal is to provide safe, reliable and cost effective bridges on Nepal's strategic roads network (SRN). Nepal is still emerging from a 10-year armed conflict that ended in 2006 and is currently passing through a momentous and prolonged political transition which is still in a fragile and incomplete state. This transition entails two interrelated processes: promulgation of a new constitution and the completion of the ongoing peace process. The Constitution is expected to lead to a major restructuring of Nepal into a federal state while the completion of the peace process is expected to resolve the integration/rehabilitation of former Maoist combatants. Nepal's peace process is progressing with the closure of Maoist cantonments and political parties attempting to resolve all contentious outstanding constitutional issues. These issues include state restructuring, forms of governance, electoral system, constitutional court, and citizenship questions to be enshrined in the new constitution. Nepal's economic growth has been adversely affected by the political uncertainty. Growth over the past decade has been below potential, relying largely on remittances and tourism. Nonetheless, Nepal has made good progress both in terms of poverty reduction and improvement of social indicators. The World Bank will support the SRN bridge-related activities, a subset of the overall program of capital investment by Department of Roads (DOR) in Nepal's road and bridge infrastructure. The SRN Bridge Program under the Department of Roads is a subset of the overall program of investment in Nepal's road and bridge infrastructure. The scope of the program under DOR encompasses three primary activities: (i) planning, technical design and quality management of bridges; (ii) major and minor maintenance of existing bridge assets; and (iii) investments in new bridge construction. Effectively planning and implementing capital investment is the most critical part of achieving the SRN Bridge Program's intended outcomes.