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NepalTRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS
Roads: Many built with foreign assistance. By
mid-July
1989, approximately 2,900 kilometers paved roads, 1,600
kilometers
gravel roads, 2,500 kilometers earthen roads. Main roads
east-west
and north-south highways. Terrain and weather,
particularly
monsoons, factors in building and maintaining roads.
Railroads: Average 1.5 million passengers
annually
between FY 1985-89; goods transported between 15,000 and
19,000
tons (only 13,000 tons in FY 1990). Limited service, from
commercial centers in Tarai to railheads near Indian
border; two
separate rail tracks with total length of 101 kilometers;
lines
south of the border through India.
Airports: Main airport Tribhuvan International
Airport
outside Kathmandu; more than thirty airfields. Domestic
service and
international flights to and from Asian and European
cities.
Government-owned Royal Nepal Airlines in 1990 carried
291,208
domestic passengers, 317,095 passengers on international
flights.
Other Modes of Transportation: Forty-two
kilometer
ropeway from Hetauda into Kathmandu valley transports
food,
construction materials, and heavy goods. Local
transportation--bus
service--common only in Kathmandu Valley.
Telecommunications: Postal service improved, but
still
inaccessible for many Nepalese; 2,232 post offices in FY
1990.
Public telephone services in most urban areas; forty-two
exchanges,
seventy-six public call offices, fifty-five wireless
stations in FY
1990. Rudimentary radio relay network. Radio programming
approximately 100 hours weekly. International telephone,
telex, and
facsimile services available but limited. AM radio
broadcast
stations, but no FM. Limited television programming.
Data as of September 1991
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