Karnali Highway is a highway, and is a vital transport link between two regions in Nepal. This highway links the towns of Jumla, the Karnali capital, and Surkhet. Karnali Zone is the largest, most remote and the least developed zone in Nepal.Nepal doesn’t have the best road safety record. Seemingly every day the Kathmandu Post runs stories of ‘xx dead in bus ravine plunge.’ The terrain doesn’t help. Nor do the vehicles, the majority of which appear to pre-date the Model T Ford, and are held together by bits of wire, glue and tape. Dubious driving practices only compound matters.According to “A Value Chain Analysis of Apple from Jumla”, and the intervention strategy indicates that more than 85 percent of the Karnali highway is still unsafe as of July 2011. Many rural inhabitants along the highway have poor access to markets, healthcare facilities and schools and deal with high transport costs. Inadequate roads make it hard for farmers to transport and market their crops.
