Kathmandu, November 6 The Government of Switzerland has agreed to provide technical grant assistance of CHF 19.4 million (approximately Rs 2.1 billion) to the Government of Nepal for two programmes. Of the total amount, CHF 9.4 million will be spent on implementation of Trail Bridge Sector Wide Approach Framework III, and CHF 10 million on implementation of Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme, according to a statement issued by the Embassy of Switzerland in Kathmandu. More than 8,000 trail bridges have been built in Nepal through the Swiss technical support and funding support. As a result, over 18 million people have been benefited. On an average, more than 1.4 million people use trail bridges every day. Student attendance at schools has increased by 16 per cent, and the number of people visiting health centres has increased by 26 per cent on an average after the construction of trail bridges, the embassy stated. It is estimated that Nepal still needs additional 2,400 bridges to facilitate isolated rural people in to access services and to avoid a detour of more than an hour. The trail bridge programme will assist the Government of Nepal to implement the Sector Wide Approach Framework III. The programme also sets precedence for implementation of the Federal Constitution of Nepal, whereby most of the implementation will be championed by local levels.