The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Lyonpo Chandra Bahadur Gurung, Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, addressed the pressing issue of budget limitations affecting road construction, improvement, and maintenance under the 13th Five-Year Plan (FYP).
Lyonpo highlighted the significant demand for road development, stating, “If all the demands for roads are considered, the Department of Service Transport (DoST) alone would require a budget allocation of over Nu 100 billion. Currently, we only have a budget of Nu 45 billion.”
Due to these competing needs, DoST has prioritized the construction of the South-East-West Highway and the completion of the remaining North-East-West Highway. However, the minister emphasized that the ministry is actively seeking additional budget support to address other highways and roads within their five-year tenure.
He also mentioned the importance of the 18-kilometer road connecting Trashigang town and Rangjung. However, there are insufficient resources to include it in the ministry’s 13th FYP.
As per the data from the ministry, there are 18264.60 km of existing road in the country.
