Economic appraisal of rural roads : simplified operational procedures for screening and appraisal

This paper suggests simple operational approaches to the screening and economic appraisal of road components of rural roads and development projects. It is based on a review of appraisal and preparation documents of 15 "traditional" bank rural roads projects and 5 rural development projects with rural road components, as well as relevant literature. The objective is to simplify screening and appraisal methods without reducing their reliability to unacceptable levels. The proposed screening methods are based on the principles of discriminant analysis and a process of finding a quick and rough estimation of an economic return. (TRRL)