The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The 140 feet long Langchenphu motorable bridge of Kurtoe gewog under Lhuentse dzongkhag, collapsed on 15 January and fell into the Kurichu River.
The bridge which completed 90% of the works was part of the gewog’s developmental activities and the construction work began last year. Kurtoe gewog has completed all the developmental activities except for Langchenphu Bridge works.
Specific budget allocated for the Bridge is unknown because the concerned officials are away from the administrative center for some official meetings.
The Gewog Administration Officer (GAO) Dupten Tshering said including developmental works of farm roads and bridges, the total budget comes around Nu 7mn.
The incident occurred when the Construction Development Corporation Limited (CDCL) people were carrying out paneling works on the Bridge. After completion of the first two paneling and during the third paneling, the accident occurred when the nuts of the bridge got pulled out and the Bridge fell apart from the middle and collapsed into the water.
CDCL people are underway with extraction of metals from the water.
GAO Dupten Tshering said “It will take another week to finish with the extraction works”.
Talking with Kurtoe gewog’s Gup Ugyen Tshering, he said he was in the meeting when the incident occurred and he came to know about it when the site manager under CDCL informed him through telephone about the incident.
The incident happened around 11 am.
About 18 CDCL people were working on the bridge on the day of the accident, luckily there was no casualty but one injured was immediately taken to hospital.
People of the gewog are saddened to see the bridge collapse before them, the bridge which was supposed to be a reality in the coming days. But now, their dreams shattered in a day.
The Gup said, people were excited about the completion of the Bridge which was meant to happen soon and now they are heartbroken.
“Some were even shedding tears,” he said in a sad tone.ss
He added saying, “It is a great loss and by now the metals might be damaged”.
The Langchenphu Bridge which connects Dungkhar and Chagzam village would immensely benefit 50 households and 35 households respectively.
The completion of Bridge would mean easy access for vehicles which successively would ensure a convenient mode of travel for the people for domestic reasons or for their business purposes.
Moreover, now the road has almost reached the bridge while other parts of the roads are also underway with the construction works.
next will be the bridge over the Dhuti Khola in Pheuntsholing. see the size and load of trucks (hydro project trucks) crossing that bridge and the load capacity of that bridge)