It was in 2019 when the residents of Mendrupling village at Phuntshothang Gewog in Samdrup Jongkhar were promised a motorable bridge over the Deklai river. Three years on, there is no sight of bridge construction. The residents say a motorable bridge has now become the need of the hour if the village is to see any development.
Without a motorable bridge, today, villagers park their vehicles at the Deklai riverside and use a suspension bridge to reach home.
Some villagers have to walk almost half an hour carrying things on their backs.
“It is difficult for us to transport goods without a motorable bridge. We have to carry things on our backs. It is challenging to do anything without a bridge,” said Damber Singh Bhujel, a resident of Phuntshothang Gewog.
“It is especially challenging in times of emergency such as delivery as vehicles cannot reach the village,” said Padam Adhikari, another resident of the gewog.
“I run a shop here and it is difficult as I have to carry all the things from the road point. Similarly, the villagers also have to carry everything including rice and oil on their backs as the vehicle cannot reach here,” added Ganga Kumari, a shopkeeper in the gewog.
Lok Bahdur Gurung, another resident said even the suspension bridge is not reliable as it could get washed away by the river during monsoon.
Meanwhile, Phuntshothang Gup Jamyang Gyeltshen said the gewog administration could not start bridge construction due to budget constraints.
He said it requires about Nu 70 M to construct a motorable bridge. But the gewog had allocated only Nu 26 M for the bridge construction in 2020.
And without a budget in the current financial year, both the district nor the gewog administrations do not have any plans to begin the construction any sooner.
The villagers also requested for a bridge to the Prime Minister during his visit to the gewog in May this year. The Prime Minister’s office has asked the Ministry of Works and Human Settlement to look into the matter.
Meanwhile, the ministry said they are planning a visit to the site soon with a bridge expert to study the feasibility of constructing a bridge.
If the visit proves successful, it would put an end to the challenges facing some 45 households of Mendrupling village.
Kinley Wangchuk, Samdrup Jongkhar
Edited by Phub Gyem
