Table 2: Brief description of sub-criteria and their measures.

Sub-criteria		Brief Description and Measures
Road construction costs		The cost of the road from design to delivery [currency per km]. Includes costs of surveying and design, site clearance, earthwork structures, side drains, pavement, establishment of road furniture, land. The costs could be taken from Detailed Project Report.
Road maintenance costs		The cost of maintaining the road [currency per km per year]. Depends upon the topography of road alignment, precipitation characteristics, road surface, existing structure and drainage system, type of vehicle and loading. Account for both routine and periodic maintenance. The costs could be taken from similar from other roads as per departmental guidelines.
Vehicle operation costs		The cost of operating vehicles given the state of the road and the traffic on it [currency per km]. Depends on characteristics of vehicles and roads. Accounts for capital costs including depreciation and interest, fuel consumption, tire consumption, maintenance costs, driver and conductors’ costs oil and Lubricants and overhead costs including garaging and insurance. The Vehicle Operation Costs can be calculated using HDM-VOC model RED-VOC model developed by the World Bank.
Travel time costs		The total value of time of the passengers who travel on the road [currency/year]. It is obtained as the product of number of travellers, travel time and passengers’ time cost. Different models such as Route Choice Model, Mode Choice Model and Speed Choice Model are used to determine the value of travel time. Due to lack of survey results, appropriate income levels are used in this study.
Accident costs		The monetary value of the accidents on the road [currency/year]. Obtained as accident cost = traffic volume*risk elasticity*unit cost per accident*external part, taking the risk elasticity from the literature and the external part from insurance policies. The accident costs consist of fatal accidents, non-fatal injury accidents and accident involving property damage only. The predictive models which relate the accident occurrence to traffic volume and a range of attributes such as road design features, traffic control features and site features are used in the estimation of road accident costs [7]. The top-down approach, using the national data on the accident are used in this study.
Pollution costs		The monetary value of air pollution costs, if possible, lifecycle emissions due to vehicles travelling on the road [currency/year]. This may be obtained considering each pollutant and associating the unit costs of each pollutant’s emission to the total emitted.
Population served per km	An evaluation of the population that may benefit from the construction of the road [numbers of people/km]. It may be evaluated by using the latest census data and considering the influence area of the road corridor. The latter may be taken as 5 km on both sides of the road, to represent the distance that may be walked within an hour.
Access to Educational Services	An evaluation of the number of students in the influence area of the road, using the road services [numbers of students]. The influence area of the road is taken 5 km on both sides of it.
Access to Other services	An evaluation of the health services, administrative services and markets served by the road [nos. of institutions]. This criterion may be evaluated by the judgment of the planner during social studies and considering the quantity of health services, administrative services and markets within the influence area of the road, which is taken 5 km on either side of it.
Road as a community priority	A ranking of the place of the road project as a Community Priority [ranking on a scale of 1-5]. The ranking may be obtained from the judgment of the planners involved in the social studies about the road project. Elements towards the evaluation are the presence of local people in the public meetings, their commitment to the participation in road construction, and the donation of land.
Impacts on natural systems	An evaluation of the effect of the construction of the road on the natural system [ranking on a scale of 1-9]. This sub-criterion considers elements such as the number trees to be fell down, the area of forest that should be encroached by the road alteration of surface water hydrology of waterways crossed by roads resulting in increased sediment in streams affected by increased soil erosion at construction site.
Encroachment in historical/ cultural areas and precious ecology (e.g. Sensitive or protected areas)	An evaluation of the encroachment of an alternative alignment in historical/cultural/ecologically precious areas [ranking on a scale of 1-9]. The indicator measures number and area of encroachment on historical/ cultural areas and precious ecology (e.g. sensitive or protected areas). The ranking may be given by the judgment of the planner.
Possibility of landslide or flooding	An evaluation of the part of an alignment subject to danger of landslide, erosion or flooding [ranking on a scale of 1-9]. This indicator can be measured by the length of the road passing through landslide/erosion or flooding prone zone, which is then turned into a ranking 1-9 by the planner.