The Road Maintenance Project (RMP) is part of the MCC Nepal Compact, a program funded by the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Government of Nepal. Its aim is to keep Nepal’s Strategic Road Network in good condition by improving how the country plans, funds, and carries out road maintenance.
The evaluated project has two components. The first is technical assistance to build the capacity of the Department of Roads (DoR), Roads Board Nepal (RBN), and the Institute of Engineering (IoE) in areas such as data collection, maintenance planning, prioritization, contracting, and road safety. The second is a program of maintenance works, which includes Full Depth Reclamation (FDR) pavement recycling on the 40-kilometer Dhankhola-Lamahi section of the East-West Highway and periodic maintenance on the Narayanghat-Mugling section. The compact also establishes a matching fund that provides two dollars to the Government of Nepal for every additional dollar it spends onperiodic maintenance above its historical average, up to US$15 million a year for three years.
IDG is conducting the project’s independent performance evaluation over a seven-year period, from 2026 through 2033. The evaluation examines whether the RMP met its objective, how implementation compared with the original design, and why the results turned out as they did. It draws on road-condition and budget data alongside interviews and site visits with the agencies and stakeholders involved.
Because the durability of the reforms is central to the project, IDG will carry out its final round of data collection about three years after the compact closes in 2029, allowing the evaluation to assess whether improvements in road condition and institutional capacity are sustained once MCC support ends. IDG will work with the Millennium Challenge Account-Nepal (MCA-Nepal) and relevant government agencies throughout, and will publish its findings on the MCC Evidence Platform.