The construction of Bhutan’s first climate change resilient road, Nganglam-Dewathang Highway, is to begin from next year. The 70-kilometre highway is a pilot project designed to endure the adverse impact of climate change.
The freelance consultant, Niralal Rai, who is building the road, says they have designed the road, keeping in mind, to adopt enough safety factors.
He said they will maintain stable slope gradients in design, and increase drainage capacity, among others.
He said safety factors will also be taken into account while designing bridges and culverts. “Areas like prone to flooding and landslides will be avoided.”
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However, the consultant says, the construction will incur an additional cost.
“We have no way of monitoring it whether this extra cost that we are investing, is it giving us extra value? Is it giving us an added value?” said the Works and Human Settlement Minister, Dorji Choden. Lyonpo said this kind of monitoring is absent.
“So again I am cautioning, not that we don’t have to do it, we have to do it, but whenever such technique comes, technologies comes, concepts comes, let’s also think about resources.”
