Every monsoon, some portions of Phuentshogling Gewog Centre road are washed away. Due to the substantial expenses incurred for road maintenance and the instability of certain stretches, the Gewog is planning to identify a new Gewog Centre road.
The present Phuentshogling Gewog Centre Road is about four kilometres uphill from the fuel depot at Amo Chhu. The road becomes nearly impassable during the summer season.
This summer is no exception as a portion of the road at a place called Darjaygang has been washed away completely last month.
For now, people are using another road which was constructed for a mining purpose connecting the highway with the Gewog office.
The road is about 15 kilometres from Samtse-Phuentshogling highway.
The Gewog and Phuentshogling Dungkhag officials met with the villagers recently to consider designating the mining road as the new Gewog Centre road. Officials said the Darjaygang area is unstable and not suitable for road construction even after spending millions of ngultrum on maintenance.
“Everyone knows how much the government has spent on this road. The road was once completely blacktopped. Drains were also constructed. When I came here during winter, some stretches of the road were also being concreted. And now there is no trace of all these efforts. The area itself is unstable. So, knowing all these facts, should we still take the risk?,” said Karma Jurmi, Phuentshogling Dungpa.
During the meeting, some people especially from Darjaygang were reluctant to accept the road paved for mining purposes as their new GC road.
“It has been years since the road has been constructed from here. The road was the gewog centre road and was also used by the three other gewogs. Although the road was constructed as a gewog centre road, works were not carried out properly. It was like a farm road. The drainage system was also poor. That way, the road was bound to get damaged,” said Nado, a resident.
“Even if you walk, by this road, we can reach here in about 15 minutes from Phuentshogling. Since I live near the roadside, everyone calls me to ask about the roadblocks. Everyone prefers to take this route,” said Guru Drukpa, another resident.
Although they ultimately agreed to use the new road by the end of the meeting, residents requested officials to maintain the existing Gewog Centre road.
For now, residents said that the Gewog office has not restored the road and they are considering undertaking the restoration work themselves.
Kinley Dem
