Only 33 of the 201 gewogs have completed their Granular Sub-base (GSB) works since Phase I of the project to improve farm roads with GSB began in July, last year. Phase I includes one farm road for each gewog. The Works and Human Settlement Minister, Dorji Tshering informed this responding to a question on the update of the GSB works on gewog farm roads across the country.
The Nanong-Shumar Member of Parliament, Lungten Namgyel sought clarifications from the Works and Human Settlement Minister on the government’s decision to allocate an equal amount of budget for the GSB works in all the gewog farm roads.
“Works to lay GSB has begun in many gewogs and a few of the gewogs have even completed the works successfully with the allocated budget from the ministry. But a few gewogs have not been able to complete the works with the same amount of budget. It could be due to the location of the place. Are there any plans to provide an additional budget or the gewogs have to adjust with the same budget?” questioned Lungten Namgyel.
GSB consists of a uniform mixture of granular material placed on a prepared subgrade and uniformly moistened, shaped and compacted. It acts as a drainage layer for the pavement to avoid excessive wetting and weakening of the subgrade.
The works and human settlement minister in response said the budget should be enough as the ministry is spending around Nu 1.7 M for a kilometre of the farm road. Lyonpo added the budgets were estimated based on the quotations put up by various local contractors.
“When they say the budget is not enough, I doubt that the gewog might be doing additional works. For instance, in Tsirang, Gesarling, Patshaling and Rangthaling Gewogs have not only completed the laying of GSB works but also blacktopped the road by adding additional budgets from themselves,” said Works and Human Settlement Minister Dorji Tshering.
However, informing the house that only 33 gewog farm roads have completed the GSB works and many still on the verge of completion, the ministry will have ample time to review and improve the project.
“As of today, we have completed the works in 33 gewogs and some are yet to complete the works within weeks or by the end of the month. So this gives us a good opportunity to study how the granular sub-base is working and how we can improve on it. This will also help us improve the second phase of the project which will begin next year,” Lyonpo added.
Phase II of the project will focus on improving three farm roads and Phase III will focus on the remaining farm roads.
The budget allocated for the construction of one kilometre of GSB and drainage is Nu 1.667 M. A total budget of Nu 2.5bn was allocated to improve more than 1,500 kilometres of farm roads in the first phase of the project.
Passang Dorji
