The much-awaited bridge over Amochhu River, which connects Samtse and Phuentshogling, finally opened to traffic today.
The 175-metre long bridge, which took nine years to complete, is the longest permanent bridge in the country. It is also the country’s first semi-through steel arch bridge and links the 58-kilometre Phuentsholing-Samtse highway.
The bridge had missed several completion deadlines. It was first scheduled for completion in September 2011.
Today, as the people of Tading Gewog and Dorokha Drungkhag of Samtse witnessed its opening, they described it as a historic moment.
T
he works and human settlement, Dorji Choden, inaugurated the bridge.
About five hundred people gathered to take part in the opening.
“Until now, we have faced many challenges due to lack of a motor able bridge,” Prem Maya Ghallay from Tading Gewog said.
“We had to carry sick people on our back to the hospital. We also had to pay about Nu 400 to taxis. I hope the fare will go down now.”
“Until today, we used to take taxi till the bridge and from there carry our loads and use the old suspension bridge to cross over. Once on the other side, we again had to hire taxi to or walk till our homes if there are no taxis around,” Wandgi Doya from Tading said.
Besides connecting Phuentsholing and Samtse directly via an internal route, the bridge is also expected to boost business opportunities for the local residents.
“We can now take our dairy products and vegetables directly to Phuentshogling for sale,” Bhim Bdr Chhetri, also Tading Gewog, said.
The bridge will also reduce travel time to and from Phuentshogling by almost half for the people of the three gewogs of Dorokha Dungkhag.
Earlier, when people had to travel via India, it took them four hours to get to Phuentshogling from Dorokha.
