With monsoon around the corner, the people of Amdrangchhu village under Minjey Gewog in Lhuentse are worried that they will have to manage with a wooden bridge yet again. Without a proper bridge, the village remains cut off from the rest of the villages, especially during summer. It has been more than two years since the gewog administration has been raising the issue in the Dzongkhag Tshogdu sessions.
The construction of a three-kilometre farm road from Chusa to Amdrangchhu under Minjey gewog was completed in 2017. However, the construction of a motorable bridge was not prioritised in the contract package due to a lack of budget. So, without a bridge, the road is used only in winters.
“There are about ten households in Amdrangchhu. And about three kilometres away, there is another village with 12 households. So, there are a total of 22 households. Without a motorable bridge, the Amdrangchhu which is one of the remote villages remains cut off from the rest of the villages,” said Minjey Gup, Jigme Tenzin Zangpo.
“The locals contribute labour to construct a wooden bridge during summer but it doesn’t serve the purpose when the water volume rises. The short route is steep, and farmers struggle to climb up the hill with luggage on their backs,” said Amdrangchhu Zham Tshogpa, Thinley Gyatsho.
“We can only travel on the farm road during winter. During summer, we travel to the gewog office from the workshop area which takes about two and half hours by walk. If there is a motor bridge, it will be easier for us,” said Sonam Yangdon, a resident.
The Minjey Gup said that the gewog administration had reported the issue to the Works and Human Settlement Minister and was also discussed in the previous Dzongkhag Tshogdu sessions.
“The Minister during his visit verbally told us that the department of roads will arrange the iron bars to construct the bridge. He asked the gewog administration to allocate a budget for the construction of the wall. So, accordingly, we have allocated Nu 1 M to construct the wall. But we haven’t received the iron bars to construct a bridge yet. So, we had to propose the bridge construction during the recent Dzongkha Tshogdu again,” added the Minjey Gup.
Meanwhile, as per the Department of Roads, the iron rods are in Autsho ready for transportation and it’s the Dzongkhag administration that will be responsible for the bridge construction. But the Dzongkhag administration was not available for comments.
But with no concrete decision on the bridge construction, the residents of Amdrangchhu will have to prepare themselves for another difficult summer.
Sonam Tshering, Lhuentse
Edited by Sonam Pem
