Residents of Trashi Yangtse are still waiting for the construction of the 600-megawatt Kholongchhu Hydropower Project to resume. Among the several benefits the project is expected to bring, the people are also looking forward to the completion of a road maintenance project in Khamdang Gewog. The widening and blacktopping of more than 16 kilometres of the highway was carried out by the hydroelectric project until the project was put on hold in 2022.
This portion of the road between Burbula and Buyang is quite inconvenient to drive through.
In the dry winter months, the four-kilometre stretch remains dusty and in the summer it becomes muddy and full of puddles.
The Kholongchhu Project started works on the 16.6-kilometer stretch from Doksum to Buyang in 2018. After the completion of the widening works, the blacktopping of the highway was started.
But then the project was stopped citing management and cost escalations among other issues.
As for the highway, blacktopping was finished only on 12. 5 kilometres of the stretch.
Commuters say driving along the remaining unpaved stretch has become risky.
Neten Tshering, a taxi driver said, “during summer, it becomes very muddy and it is very difficult for vehicles to pass through. Then there’s a cliff over there with big boulders that could fall anytime. It could result in a fatal accident one day. If the road is maintained and blacktopped, people of six gewogs will be benefited.”
“It isn’t much of a problem for the big vehicles but small ones have to struggle. There is a depression pond right in the middle of the road at Buyang and it is difficult for small vehicles to cross it,” said Kinley Wangchuk, a commuter.
The Department of Surface Transport says they are taking over the leftover work. The sub-division office has already completed the survey and estimations and is planning to start the work as soon as the budget is released from the head office.
Ngawang Tenzin, Trashi Yangste
Edited by Yeshi Gyaltshen
