Forty-five gewogs surveyed for road feasibility

Forty-five gewogs have been surveyed for road feasibility under the gewog connectivity (GC) road project 2011 including two remote gewogs – Soe and Naro under Thimphu dzongkhag, and Merak and Sakteng under Trashigang dzongkhag.

“The survey has already been completed,” said chief engineer under survey and design division Tshering Wangdi ‘A’, under the works and human settlement ministry (MoWHS).

He added that the roads in the forty-five gewogs were first priority but the ministry has also surveyed an additional six gewogs.

All the gewogs in the country are already connected except for some in Thimphu, Paro, Gasa, Mongar and Zhemgang.

Although the construction of the first farm roads started sometime in the year 2004, the progress prior to 2008 was very minimal.

As per Vision 2020, all the villages are to be provided with road facility and no villages shall be left within a distance of half day’s walk from the road head.

“A major chunk of gewog roads were planned and implemented after 2008 and the credit goes to the new government,” said Tshering wangdi ‘A’ adding that budget for all farm roads are allocated by the dzongkhag.

The department of road (DOR) under MoWHS carries out surveys for roads including bridges while the dzongkhag administration is responsible for constructing   farm roads through tender process.

Data with the ministry reveals that around 267 km of road is proposed for survey in the future while 673 km of road is already under survey. In total, the ministry is working on  around  1,533 km of roads.

Samrang gewog under Samdrup Jongkhar will get 23-km of road under the road network project (RNP II) which is  also part of the Asian development bank (ADB) project.

Survey for a 14-km road under Dungna, Chukha  is completed and the same has been done for an 18-km  road in Norbugang, Pemagatshel.

“Road survey for Dagana, Pemagatshel, Samdrupjongkhar, Chukha and Mongar (Kheng gewog) would be taken up in 11th five year plan,” said  the chief engineer.

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