The more than five-decade-old Lhamoi Dzingkha town in Dagana is gearing up to undergo a major facelift. The Lhamoi Dzingkha Dungkhag Administration has started handing over the land ownership certificates to the plot owners from Monday. The Lhamoi Dzingkha town was declared a satellite town in 2015.
The district and dungkhag administrations jointly began the town re-development works in December last year.
More than 50 old structures, which housed shops on almost 60 decimals of land were demolished.
The local authorities have now given the green signal to a total of 51 plot owners to start the construction.
However, before that, the engineers will have to approve the structural designs.
“After the drawings are approved, the plot owners can take their land ownership certificates and start the constructions,” said Lhamoi Dzingkha Dungpa Kinley Dorji.
According to the town’s structure plan, the plot owners can build only two-storey commercial buildings.
Currently, some plot owners are operating their business from temporary shelters, built on government land near the Lhamoi Dzingkha hospital.
They have leased the land for five years. With the town rehabilitation works to begin soon, they are optimistic about their economic prospects.
“Before, the Lhamoi Dzingkha town was housed on state land and we were operating businesses from small huts. However, during one of His Majesty’s royal tours, His Majesty commanded us to construct buildings after granting the landownership certificates,” said one of the plot owners of Lhamoi Dzingkha town, Krishna Bdr. Chhetri.
The plot owners are also happy that the town from where their income is derived will get the long-awaited makeover.
“Now we will get a new town. We are thankful to His Majesty The King for granting us landownership certificates. We are readying to start construction works,” added another plot owner of Lhamoi Dzingkha town, Kumari Gurung.
The 51 plot owners will have to complete the construction of the buildings within a year.
Since each one of them gets a little over one decimal of plot, they have collaborated to construct the buildings.
“Three of us decided to construct a building with three units since we don’t have enough land to construct buildings individually. This may take us a little longer time but we will try to finish the works within a given time,” said Dawa Lhamo Sherpa, in Lhamoi Dzingkha town.
The dungkhag administration will shoulder the responsibility of providing urban amenities to the residents including the construction of internal roads, streetlights and drains.
The Lhamoi Dzingkha town’s economic opportunities are expected to surge if the highly anticipated Sunkosh hydropower project begins and the Dalbari-Dagapela secondary national highway opens to traffic.
The town is a main urban centre for a population of about 6,000 in Lhamoi Dzingkha Dungkhag including three gewogs of Lhamoi Dzingkha, Karmaling and Nichula.
Lhamoi Dzingkha town’s history
Established in the early 1970s, the Lhamoi Dzingkha town was once a bustling place for the people of Lhamoi Dzingkha, Karmaling and Nichula gewogs. Back in the day, it was a common sight to see a good number of customers milling in and out of the shops.
However, in the past few years, customers visiting the town declined due to the easy access to the bordering towns of India, where products were sold at cheaper rates.
Until 2007, the town was under Sarpang District’s jurisdiction.
Pema Tshewang, Dagana
Edited by Pema Lhaden
