Infrastructure can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise or the services. The term infrastructure has been used since 1927 to refer collectively to the roads, bridges, rail lines, and similar public works that are required for an industrial economy, or a portion of it, to function. The term also has had specific application to the permanent military installations necessary for the defense of a country. Perhaps because of the word's technical sound, people now use infrastructure to refer to any substructure or underlying system. Big corporations are said to have their own financial infrastructure of smaller businesses, for example, and political organizations to have their infrastructure of groups, committees, and admirers. The latter sense may have originated during the Vietnam War in the use of the word by military intelligence officers, whose task it was to delineate the structure of the enemy's shadowy organizations. Today we may hear that conservatism has an infrastructure of think tanks and research foundations or that terrorist organizations have an infrastructure of people sympathetic to their cause. The Usage Panel finds this extended use referring to people to be problematic, however. Seventy percent of the Panelists find it unacceptable in the sentence FBI agents fanned out to monitor a small infrastructure of persons involved with established terrorist organizations.
Nepal Infrastructure, power, and communications
In post-1950s Nepal, planners and foreign aid donors viewed the creation of infrastructure as vital to the success of the country's economic development. Five-year plans prioritized transportation and communications, but although the results were significant, they remain inadequate. Nepal has 13,849 kilometers (8,522 miles) of paved, graveled, and fair-weather roads, with the major highways linking east to west and north to south. However, monsoon rains work on the unstable mountain geology, causing widespread landslides and driving up road maintenance costs. There were 253,407 vehicles registered in 1999, of which 142,000 were in the Kathmandu Valley. Airports operate in 44 out of 75 districts, and include domestic airports in remote areas which link up with the international airport in Kathmandu. This network is crucial to the tourist industry. Recently, Nepal adopted an open-sky policy, allowing private airlines to operate domestic and international services.Other forms of transportation are underdeveloped. There is a single narrow gauge railway line covering a distance of 52 kilometers (32 miles) from Janakpur to Jayanagar in the south, and an under-utilized 42-kilometer (26-mile) ropeway (suspended cable-car line) from Hetauda to Kathmandu, which transported 10,684 metric tons of goods in 1995. A limited trolley bus service operates in the Kathmandu Valley. Access to the sea is only possible through the Indian ports of Calcutta (1,150 kilometers, or 713 miles, from the Nepalese border) and Haldia.Much has been said about the potential of Nepal's hydropower to fulfill local power needs, drive industrialization, and boost revenues through the sale of surplus power to India. Of a feasible potential of 27,000 megawatts (MW), Nepal currently uses a mere 332.7 MW. "Mega-projects," sponsored by institutions such as the World Bank, have been embraced and publicized by successive governments as a panacea to some of the country's economic
Industrial Centers
Nepal has made good progress in recent years in the development and improvement of basic infrastructure facilities required for an accelerated program of economic and social development. Efforts are continuing to further improve various facilities required for the development of trade, industry and commerce to bring them in line with modern international standards. The urban centres of Kathmandu valley (Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur), Pokhara and the industrial towns in the Terai region, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Bhairahawa, Rajbiraj, Birgunj, Butwal, Nepalgunj and Hetauda offer good facilities for the establishment of medium and large scale industries.
Zoning of Industrial Location
Nepal has made good progress in recent years in the development and improvement of basic infrastructure facilities required for an accelerated program of economic and social development. Efforts are continuing to further improve various facilities required for the development of trade, industry and commerce to bring them in line with modern international standards. The urban centres of Kathmandu valley (Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur), Pokhara and the industrial towns in the Terai region, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Bhairahawa, Rajbiraj, Birgunj, Butwal, Nepalgunj and Hetauda offer good facilities for the establishment of medium and large scale industries.
Zoning of Industrial Location
His Majesty's Government has specified four zones for the purpose of granting permission or registration of new industries in and out of the municipalities including Kathmandu valley. It is hoped that this zoning of industrial location will facilitate planned, systematic and healthy industrial development by reducing industrial pollution, and over utilization of infrastructure facilities. Likewise, this zoning will also facilitate the balanced economic development of the country through diversification of investment flows in the underdeveloped and less developed areas of the kingdom. These four zones of industrial location are as follows :
Zone 1 Municipal areas of Kathmandu valley.
Zone 2 Outside the municipal areas of Kathmandu valley.
Zone 3 Municipal areas of Biratnagar, Dharan, Pokhara, Birgunj, Janakpur, Siddarthanagar, Butwal and Nepalgunj.
Zone 4 Municipal areas other than those mentioned in zone3.
Each zone has been clearly specified as to what type of industries is allowed to establish and operate. This policy has been adopted to ease and facilitate new investors so that they are encouraged to start their undertakings without difficulties.
Industrial Districts
With a view to boost industrialization by setting up various physical infrastructures and facilities necessary for the establishment of industrial enterprises the Government has established 11 industrial districts in various regions of the country. These are in Balaju, Patan, Bhaktapur, Hetauda, Pokhara, Dharan, Butwal, Nepalgunj, Birendranagar, Rajbiraj and Dhankuta.
Zone 1 Municipal areas of Kathmandu valley.
Zone 2 Outside the municipal areas of Kathmandu valley.
Zone 3 Municipal areas of Biratnagar, Dharan, Pokhara, Birgunj, Janakpur, Siddarthanagar, Butwal and Nepalgunj.
Zone 4 Municipal areas other than those mentioned in zone3.
Each zone has been clearly specified as to what type of industries is allowed to establish and operate. This policy has been adopted to ease and facilitate new investors so that they are encouraged to start their undertakings without difficulties.
Industrial Districts
With a view to boost industrialization by setting up various physical infrastructures and facilities necessary for the establishment of industrial enterprises the Government has established 11 industrial districts in various regions of the country. These are in Balaju, Patan, Bhaktapur, Hetauda, Pokhara, Dharan, Butwal, Nepalgunj, Birendranagar, Rajbiraj and Dhankuta.
