The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Construction Development Corporation Limited (CDCL) claims that there were no procedural lapses for the collapse of the 140 feet long Langchenphu motorable bridge of Kurtoe gewog under Lhuentse dzongkhag.
According to the Regional General Manager of CDCL under Mongar Dzongkhag, Karma Lotey in Lingmithang, they had followed the regular procedures and moreover, CDCL had constructed 15 bridges with the same quality of launching nose.
“The Langchenphu Bridge is the 16th bridge CDCL was launching which had a span of over 150 -200 feet,” said Karma Lotey.The construction of Langchenphu Bridge began last year and 90% of the works were completed. Unfortunately on 15 January, 2012 the bridge collapsed and fell into the Kurichhu River. The construction was part of the gewog’s developmental activities and it was funded by the Dzongkhag. CDCL officials or the Local government officials were therefore unaware of the budget allocated.
However the Gewog Administration officer (GAO) Dupten Tshering in an earlier interview said including developmental activities of farm roads and bridges, the total budget comes around Nu 7mn.
The incident occurred on 15 January when the CDCL people were carrying out paneling works on the bridge. After completion of the first two paneling and during the third paneling, the Langchenphu Bridge which was nearing completion, collapsed.
The CDCL Regional General Manager said that the fixed Launched Nose got old and too much stress in between during the third paneling resulted in falling of the bridge.
Since last Saturday the repair works on the bridge had started and within these four days it is expected to be completed.
The extraction of the panels from the river is completed but about 8 panels got damaged.
“The damaged panels will be replaced by CDCL,” he said.
At the moment 17 technicians and operators are on the site assembling and installing the panels. This will connect two launching noses by pinning, bolting or clamping the panels.
After the completion of Langchenphu Bridge, 85 households of Dungkhar and Chagzam village will benefit. The completion of Bridge would supplement the transportation facilities in Kurtoe gewog.
The road has almost reached the bridge and other parts of the road are also underway with ongoing construction works. The Bhutanese had first broken the story on the collapsed bridge.
Workman ship in Bhutan is very poor especially in Government funded projects.
wow! claiming no procedural lapses even when the whole nridge went down. what cause it fall down if there were no procedural lapses? was it then caused by nedhag zhidag of that place?
ACC should also get into this story for investigation.
Don’t drag ACC every time….. they have already built 15 bridges before and it has been benefiting many people. So why not give them some credit they deserve.
Don’t always stick to failure. I agree that workmanship in government funded project is poor but look at the situation properly. They don’t have enough fund to carry out such work professionally like DNC do. I have seen the quality of work carried out by DNC specially in bridge construction and they are way better than us.
Hats off to DNC for their exemplary bridge construction. The moment I drive on their bridge I just feel like I am in Japan.
Then it must be magic. There were no lapses in the construction of the bridge yet the bridge falls down. What a waste of time and money, and government resources! I also agree ACC has to investigate this too. All of us know that our construction sector especially in the remote Dzongkhags have been one of most corrupted. Is the Bhutanese workmanship so shoddy that we cannot even build a bridge well?.Where are all our engineers? It is quite shameful that no one seems to be blamed for this incident. In some places, engineers would get sacked, Secretaries and Directors would have to give explanations and Ministers would resign. We would like to see such things happen in Bhutan too for a change.