Almost half of the Gewog Centre Roads in Tsirang are in dire need of maintenance. Of the 12 Gewogs in the district, today five GC roads are in bad shape and need immediate resurfacing works. But the commuters will have to bear the poor condition of the roads for quite some time. The local leaders said that the gewog administrations don’t have enough budgets to execute resurfacing works.
Among the five GC roads in bad shape, the Sergithang GC road needs urgent intervention. The road surface has worn out. It is rough, filled with stones, gravel, and other debris.
Moreover, unattended huge countless potholes are making driving along the stretch very exhausting.
Some portions of the road are washed away due to poor drainage systems.
The condition is no better along the 12-kilometre Tsirang Toed GC road. The road was in an even worse state until the gewog administration carried out minor repairing works. Even the maintained stretch may not last long due to the steep gradient and poorly maintained drains alongside the road.
“GC roads used to be in better conditions when we had roadside workers from the National Work Force. They took good care of drains but today without them rainwater and stream flow freely on roads during summer. The major road damages are mainly caused by the poor drainage system,” said Mani Kumar Rai, in Tsirang.
Residents say they end up maintaining the GC roads themselves. “We don’t know whether heavy vehicles or rainwater are causing the road damage.”
“The poor GC roads also become an issue between the taxi drivers and passengers. At times we have to charge a little higher when passengers take us to gewogs with poor road conditions,” added Jigme Norbu, a taxi driver in Tsirang.
Miles away from Sergithang and Tsirang Toed Gewogs, commuters travelling along Kilkhorthang and Dunglagang GC roads are also greeted with bumpy rides. Both the gewogs have carried out some minor maintenance works but incessant rainfall in the past few days has deteriorated the road conditions.
The entire 9.8-kilometre Barshong GC road suffered similar damages. The gewog has been spending huge amounts annually on road maintenance.
During the Prime Minister’s visit to the Dzongkhag last weekend, the local leaders requested the government and Tsirang Dzongkhag Administration to allocate separate budgets to resurface the damaged roads. They said that the Nu 30,000 allocated per kilometre is not enough when the GC roads require major maintenance works.
“Without forgoing other important or urgent and mandatory activities the budget is not enough. Now, if we have to resurface GC roads, it won’t be enough even if we allocate the entire budget for one financial year,” said Beda Moni Chamlagai, the Chairperson of Tsirang Dzongkhag Tshogdu.
“With just Nu 260,000, we couldn’t complete maintaining even half of our GC road because around 80 per cent of the road has been damaged severely. We request either the Dzongkhag Administration or the government to allocate separate budgets to maintain GC roads,” said Nanda Lal Kharel, the Tsirang Toed Gup.
Barshong Gup Santa Lal Powdel also said his GC road gets worse every year during the monsoon. “The Barshong GC road has been damaged severely since the year before last year. We have to maintain the road at least three times a year.”
However, Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering did not provide any assurance of approving separate budgets. Lyonchhen however said the local government leaders have full authority for re-appropriation of the Gewog Block Grants based on urgency.
“Once the government approves the Block Grant as per the Resource Allocation Formula for respective gewogs, the local government leaders have authority for budget appropriation. The gewog administrations have full financial power even if they want to invest the entire Block Grant of a financial year to maintain GC road. There is a question of inadequate budgets but we have to adjust with what we have in our hands.”
As such the issue is here to stay until the five Gewog Administrations get budgets to resurface the roads.
Pema Tshewang, Tsirang
Edited by Phub Gyem
