Nepal-TRANSPORTATION 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