Understanding transport characteristics in disadvantaged regions of developing country: empirical study from Nepal

Government of Nepal accorded high priority to the development of transport in disadvantaged regions. However, current statistics reveal that the road sector failed to generate the promised impacts. There is an urgent need of research on understanding the characteristics of transport in disadvantaged regions in totality which could be integrated into transport planning in a sustainable way. We assessed the characteristics of transport that exists in the three rural settlements of Nepal through primary survey and examined the factors that contribute to the totality of transport. The study revealed that transport tasks related to meeting the basic subsistence outweighed those concerning to agriculture production and marketing. Proximity of the settlements to the highway/feeder road had little impact on overall transportation tasks of the households. Moreover, the transport burden is unduly higher on the female population. The findings can have major implications for the alteration of current transportation planning practices for disadvantaged regions.