Where the jobs will come from?
Nepal’s public and private pipeline for infrastructure is large. Government and private projects, especially hydropower, roads and urban infrastructure, are planned or under construction at scale:
- Hydropower pipeline: government records and industry lists show hundreds of hydropower projects (many >1 MW) with a combined planned/under-construction capacity quoted at roughly 10,696 MW (several hundred projects, including mega projects such as Arun III = 900 MW and Tila-1 = 440 MW). This pipeline keeps demand for civil, geotechnical and hydraulic engineers high over the next decade.
- Public infrastructure spending: Nepal’s 2025/26 budget and reporting highlighted major allocations to physical infrastructure; independent reporting put the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure & Transport allocation at about USD 1,115 million (in the national FY 2025/26 planning context), signalling sizeable state spending on roads and transport projects.
- Workforce scale: industry analyses estimate the construction sector workforce at around 1 million people (this includes informal labor), underlining how big the sector is and how many roles (from unskilled to technical) it supports.
Bottom line: there are projects and money. For graduates who can enter these project pipelines, the demand can be real — especially in hydropower, roads and climate-resilient works.
How many engineers graduate?
Supply matters. Multiple local sources over recent years report that Nepal’s engineering colleges produce thousands of engineering graduates each year (commonly quoted figures around ~8,000 graduates/year from dozens of colleges), while the Nepal Engineers Council has licensed roughly 78,000+ engineers cumulatively. At the same time, professional licensure/license-exam pass rates are low: recent NEC exam rounds showed pass rates around 28–32% for those sitting the professional licensing test — meaning graduating does not automatically translate to licensed practice. These facts explain why new grads often feel competitive pressure for the best jobs.
Pay
Salary levels vary widely by employer, experience and city:
- Market aggregators and salary surveys for 2024–2025 show entry-level civil engineers commonly starting as low as NPR 15,000–30,000/month, with national averages reported in the NPR 30,000–70,000/month band. Mid-career engineers in good firms or international projects can reach six-figure monthly salaries (NPR 100,000+) but those are less common. Annualized average compensation figures from Payscale in 2025 show civil-engineer average totals near ~NPR 460,000/year (varies by dataset). These numbers underline that civil engineering is not a guaranteed high-paying start; location and employer matter.
Safety
Construction is a field job and carries risks:
- Occupational injuries: academic reviews and national studies suggest tens of thousands of workplace injuries per year in Nepal, with dozens to a few hundred workplace deaths annually reported across sectors; construction has a high share of nonfatal and fatal incidents. One review estimated ~20,000 workers injured and ~200 work-related deaths annually across Nepal (all sectors), with construction prominent among high-risk trades.
- Climate impacts: flood and landslide incidents remain frequent. Humanitarian/analysis agencies documented repeated monsoon floods and landslides (2023–2024 events) that damaged roads, bridges and hydropower access roads studies estimate infrastructure losses in recent extreme events that amount to hundreds of millions USD in damage and recovery costs (one 2025 analysis cited losses at ~USD 341 million for flood-related damages). This raises the technical bar for resilient design and for engineers who must incorporate climate risk into projects.
Practical implication: civil engineers who are serious about safety and resilience and who obtain training in site safety management, slope/drainage design and climate-adaptive design will be far more employable and safer on site.
Alternatives
IT and data fields continue to show faster salary growth and remote-work opportunities. Nepal produces many IT graduates each year (estimates range in the low tens of thousands across IT and computer science fields annually) and the sector’s growth has attracted outsourcing and remote jobs that pay competitively compared to entry-level civil jobs. If your priority is fast income growth and remote flexibility, tech has the edge but it req
uires self-driven skill-building and portfolio work.
Who should pick civil engineering in 2025?
Choose civil engineering if you:
- Want to build physical infrastructure and don’t mind fieldwork.
- Are willing to earn practical internships on active projects (hydropower, roads, water).
- Will upskill deliberately (BIM/GIS, STAAD/ETABS, geotech basics, site safety, climate-resilient design).
- Prefer a profession tied to national development and long-term local demand.
Consider switching if you:
- Prioritize remote work, fastest short-term salary growth, or less field risk (tech/data may deliver that).
- Are unwilling to take extra steps (internships, licensure prep) beyond the classroom.
Final verdict
Yes — civil engineering can be worth studying in Nepal in 2025, but only if you pair the degree with practical site experience, technical tools, safety/resilience training, and active licensure preparation. The country’s project pipeline (notably hydropower and roads) and budget allocations create real demand, but competition, modest entry pay, site risks and the need for resilience skills mean you should enter prepared, not hopeful. If your priorities are remote work or fast early pay, explore IT/data, otherwise, build a hybrid profile (civil + digital skills) and you’ll keep the most doors open.
