With more than a decade of experience in urban planning for the country’s biggest and fastest-developing thromde, Thimphu Thrompon-elect Ugyen Dorji says that experience would help him take on the new role with a clear vision.
The Thrompon-elect won the recent thromde elections, which saw him face stiff competition especially from the former Thrompon, Kinlay Dorjee.
Reasserting his pledges for the next five years, the thrompon-elect says accelerating the ongoing public infrastructure projects within the thromde would be his immediate task after joining the office.
About 50 to 60 projects such as road and sewerage rehabilitations are underway in the thromde.
“Improving the system by making it transparent and accountable that no individual should feel that he or she is indispensable. I want to make a city that is well-coordinated and also improve traffic congestion, which is the biggest issue. And looking at the geographical condition, road widening is not possible. So I would improve public transport and increase bus facilities,” said Ugyen Dorji, the Thimphu Thrompon-elect.
Also, realising the mounting pressure the thromde faces in terms of delivering effective public services, the thrompon-elect wants to digitise the services.
“I am talking about the digitisation of the public facilities. For water network, sewerage network and all these have to be digitised so that we know the problems that are happening in and around the city. So that we can fix and facilitate the problem in the fastest manner,” he said.
Aware of problems such as a lack of community vitality, erratic water supply and the housing crunch plaguing the capital city, he is looking forward to addressing them.
“I think my pledges are very inclusive, where I talked about having demkhong offices in every location, making the services transparent and equitable. So, that kind of approach will improve all those sectors,” he added.
For now, he waits to officially take over the responsibility of the capital city’s mayor and translate his vision of making Thimphu thromde- a well-coordinated and sustainable city into a reality.
Pema Lhaden
