DTMP Sankhuwasabha 2012 FOREWORD It is my great pleasure to introduce this District Transport Master Plan (DTMP) of Sankhuwasabha district especially for district road core network (DRCN). I believe that this document will be helpful in backstopping to Rural Transport Inffrastructure Sector Wide Approach (RTI SWAp) through sustainable planning, resouurces mobilization, implementation and monitoring of the rural road sub-sector development. The document is anticipated to generate substantial employment opportunities for rural people through increased and reliable accessibility in on farm and off-farm livelihood diversification, and commercialization and industrialization of agriculture and other economic sectors, as well as harmonization of social centres. In this context, rural road sector will play a fundamental role to strengthen and promote overall economic growth of this district through established and improved year round transport services reiinforcing intra and inter-district linkages . Therefore, it is most crucial in executing rural road networks in a planned way as per the District Transport Master Plan (DTMP) by considering the framewwork of available resources in DDC comprising both inteernal and external sources. Viewing these aspects, DDC Sankhuwasabha has prepared the DTMP by focusing mostt of the available resources into upgrading and maintenance of the existing road networks. This document is also bbeen assumed to be helpful in lobbing and fascinating the donor agencies through central government towards generating needy resources through basket fund approach. Furthermore, this document not solely will be supportive in avoiding pervasive duplication approach in resources allocation under the rural road network development sector but also will be helpful in supporting overall development management of the district. I would, firstly like to express my gratitude to Mr. Bishnu Ram Bistaa, RTI Pilot District Asset Management Engineer for his continuous dedication, hard work, cooperation, negotiation and counselling in bringing up this DTMP document at this final stage successfully. I would also express my gratitude to Mr. Jagdish Kumar Singh, RTI Pilot Sub Asset Management Engineer for his valuable support in the process of preparing DTMP report. I would like to thank to Mr. Sanjay Parsad Sah, Chief off District Technical Office (DTO), Mr. Kaji Man Rai, Planning and Administrative Officer DDC and other DDC and DTO staffs who directly and indirrectly supported in the process of preparing this document. My special thank goes to all chief and representatives of political parties and other DTICC members, as well as civil societies who played central role in tthe prioritization of roads for DRCN and other valuable supports in preparing this document. Last but not least, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD), Department of Local Infrastructure Development and Agricultural Roads (DOLIDAR) and RTI SECTOR Maintenance Pilot Ceentral Unit for their valuable support to produce this report. Any innovative and constructive suggestions regardinng policy implementation and compliance of DTMP will be highly appreciated. Lila Adhikari Local Development Officere District Development Committee Sankhuwasabha, Nepal 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS District Transport Master Plan (DTMP) of Sankhuwasabha District has been prepared with support from UK AID/DFID, Technical Assistance by RTI Sector Maintenance Pilot and close coordination with DoLIDAR. We would like to express our gratitude to Mrs Lila Adhikari, Local Development Officer (LDO), Mr Sanjay Parsad Sah., Chief District Technical Office (DTO), Mr. Kaji Man Rai, Planning and Administrative Officer, and all other DDC and DTO staffs for their valuable suggestions and co-operation for the preparation of this report. We would also like to thank Mr Bupendra Bahadur Basnet, Director General of DOLIDAR, members of the DOLIDAR Technical Committee, including Mr. Ganga Bahadur Basnet, Coordinator, Mr Jeevan Guragain, Mr Krishna Bahadur Katwal, Mr Kumar Thapa and Mr. Manoj Krishna Shrestha, RTI Planning and Infrastructure Specialist, as well as Serge Cartier Van Dissel, RTI Rural Roads Engineering Specialist and Mr. Michael Green, RTI Team Leader all of whom were instrumental in shaping the new, “slim “ version of the DTMP. The DTMP for Sankhuwasabha was prepared by Mr Bishnu Ram Bista, RTI Pilot District Asset Management Engineer with the supporting role of Mr. Jagdhish Kumar Singh, RTI Pilot Sub Asset Management Engineer. The author is grateful to all the local people and leaders who have rendered their valuable assistance to the team during the preparation of the DTMP. 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Sankhuwasabha is located in Koshi Zone of the Eastern Development Region of Nepal. It borders with Taplejung and Terahthum district in the east, Solukhumbu and Bhojpur districts in the west, Dhankuta district in the south and Tibet the autonomous region of China in the north. The district has 1 municipality, 33 VDCs, 11 Ilakas and 2 constituency areas. The total area of the district is 3,468.38 km2. The district extends within 27º 06’ to 27º 55’ latitudes and longitude of 87º 57’ to 87º 40’ E. The lowest elevation point is 250 meter and the highest elevation point is 8463 meter from mean sea level. Subsistence agriculture farming, mainly small scale livestock is the main source of occupation and livelihood of the majority of the population, with 77.62% of the population active in this sector. Due to low level of agricultural production, the majority of the households face acute food shortages for a large part of the year. Total population of the district is 158,742 of which female is 83,517 (52.61%) and male is 75,225 (47.39%) residing in 34,624 households. Population density of the district is 52 persons/ km2. Average household size 4.33 person and life expectancy is 64years. Literacy rate of the district is 54.17%. Koshi highway (Basantapur-Chainpur-Tumlingtar-Khandbari-Num is the main access road of the district and leguwa-Tumling road is also another important access of the district. The district inventory identified just over 592.25 km of roads, including 160.75 km of strategic road network.Total 359.5 km of district road core network (DRCN) including 107km planed new construction to connect untouched VDC headquarters. DTICC has selected 23 nos of roads in district road core network (DRCN). 252.2 km of DRCN road need to conservation, improvement and 161.85 km liaise on of village road network. The existing DRCN roads link up 33 VDC headquarters with district headquarter. All of the DRCN roads are earthen fair- weather roads. Road Class Total length Black Top Gravel Earthen Strategic road network 160.75 49.50 25.20 86.05 Urban roads 17.45 1.08 ‐ 16.37 District road core network 252.20 ‐ ‐ 252.20 Village roads 161.85 ‐ 6.09 155.76 Total 592.25 50.58 31.29 510.38 Annual conservation costs are estimated at NPR 76 million based on the first year, and will be updated in the ARMP based on actual annual maintenance needs as determined in the annual road condition survey. For the full five-year period the conservation costs will come to NPR 378 million. An analysis of the road network identified the need for improvement of all the DRCN roads in order to bring them to a maintainable all-weather standard and provide them with a proper road surface in light of existing traffic volumes. The required improvements and their estimated costs are listed below. Improvement type Requirement Cost (NPR) Bridges m 906,000,000 Slab culverts m 78,000,000 Causeways m 14,924,300 Hume pipes units 640,000 Masonry retaining walls m3 5,093,682 Gabion retaining walls m3 51,090,275 Lined drains m 3,988,057 Widening m ‐ Rehabilitation km 3,480,000 Gravelling km 554,840,000 Blacktopping km ‐ New construction km 1,359,400,000 Total 2,977,456,314 3 The available budget for the road sector for the coming five years (fiscal year 2069/70 to 2073/74) is estimated to be NPR 268.00 million. Allocation to the district road core network was set at 95% of the total road sector budget, which was subsequently allocated firstly to the annual maintenance needs, secondly to the improvement needs and lastly to new construction. This budget is insufficient to cover all the estimated costs of conservation, improvement and new construction. However, it allows all conservation requirements to be covered throughout the DTMP period and almost all improvement works to be completed before the end of the DTMP period. The remaining improvement works will be carried out in the next DTMP. New construction is not possible within this DTMP period and will also be carried out under the next DTMP. Within the DTMP period 41.46KM of roads will be gravelled (16%) .and resulting in a total of 48.52km being brought to a maintainable all-weather standard. VDC headquarters with access to all-weather DRCN roads or the SRN will increase from 9 to 13. 4 ABBREVIATIONS DDC District Development Committee DOLIDAR Department of Local Infrastructure Development and Agriculture Road DOR Department of Road DTICC District Transport Infrastructure Coordination Committee DTMP District Transport Master Plan DTPP District Transport Perspective Plan GIS Geographical Information system GPS Global Positioning System GON Government of Nepal LGCDP Local Governance and Community Development Programme MFALD Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development SWAp Sector Wide Approach VDC Village Development Committee RTI SWAp Rural