Some of the highways in the country especially in the western and eastern regions are expected to become litter free now. Project DANTAK, apart from doing repair and maintenance works, is going to carry out cleaning campaigns along the highways under its wing. To celebrate the seventh birthday of His Royal Highness, The Gyalsey, a joint initiative called ‘the cleanliness drive’ was launched in the capital today.
Project DANTAK, Clean Bhutan, and the Department of Surface Transport are part of the initiative.
“Project DANTAK as of date is maintaining almost close to 600 kilometres of road in Bhutan. So, if we can clean it, we would feel that we have done our bit in contributing towards the cleanliness of Bhutan. Also, these highways have heavy traffic including tourists,” said Brigadier Jaswinder Singh, the Chief Engineer of Project DANTAK.
While DANTAK will do the cleaning at a fixed interval, Clean Bhutan will help in advocating the people on waste management.
“Our teams, at a fixed interval, depending upon the frequency of the traffic, maybe once a week, once a fortnight or once a month, will be travelling on foot all along the highways to clean these highways of any litter. So, a minimum of four to six people along with a vehicle will clean along the roads,” added Brigadier Jaswinder.
“There are a lot of initiatives being taken but there is no follow-up. So, in February and March, we will be working on studying the frequency and the amount of litter along the highway. We will also be working with other districts and thromde. Clean Bhutan will mainly do the advocacy programme because just picking up the waste is not good enough,” said Nedup Tshering, the Executive Director of Clean Bhutan.
As per their plan, cleaning along the Thimphu-Paro highway will be carried out weekly.
The highways from Damchu to Damthang in Haa, Haa to Paro and the highway between Samdrup Jongkhar and Trashigang will be cleaned monthly.
Similarly, the cleanliness drive along the Phuentshogling-Chuzom highway will be done every two weeks. Officials from Project DANTAK said the initiative is to inculcate a sense of cleanliness among youth.
Kinley Dem
Edited by Sherub Dorji
