active· Gender

South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Highway Improvement Project

The project will support capacity, quality, and safety improvements of the East-West Highway (EWH), which is the main domestic and international trade corridor of Nepal, and which forms part of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) corridor 4 linking Kathmandu to Dhaka and Chittagong through India. The project will (i) rehabilitate and widen about 87 kilometers (km) of the EWH between Kanchanpur and Kamala in southeastern Nepal; (ii) improve road safety, asset management, and gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) on the 1,027 km EWH; and (iii) strengthen the road safety and GESI capacity of road sector agencies. The project will promote economic growth and contribute to improving the competitiveness of Nepal's exporting industries by enhancing the efficiency of the transport system, strengthening national and regional connectivity, and improving the safety of the road network.