For the people using the road connecting Damphu town and Changchey in Tsirang, the journey has been a bumpy one. According to commuters, the 12-kilometre stretch did not see any major maintenance for over a decade now.
Just past the Damphu Central School junction, commuters have to brace for a rough ride ahead. The entire stretch leading to Changchey is filled with potholes and uneven surfaces.
“This road from here connects to five gewogs. The ride along this road is bumpy. The road condition is as same as some ten years ago. There are many potholes and vehicles get damaged from below. Moreover, the number of heavy vehicles in this region increased drastically causing inconveniences,” said Nima Wangdi.
The traffic is also quite heavy with over a hundred vehicles using the road on a daily basis. It connects around seven gewog centre roads.
“The road condition is very bad. People of 5-6 gewogs travel and use this road regularly. It is high time that dzongkhag do something or the gewog should look for the budget to resurface the road. This will benefit all immensely,” said Utam Basnet.
“Taxis won’t come to ferry us, they say the road is very bad. If we go to Damphu town in the morning we have to wait until evening till we get a bolero that is going back to village. The actual charge is only Nu 70 but they charge us Nu 100. The people who are maintaining the road fill up the potholes with mud and soil from the roadside, which in short time dries up creating lots of dust pollution, which is inconvenient for us living near the roads,” said Til Bahadhur Nepal.
“We have to travel on this road almost every day. We have to constantly visit the workshop to do vehicle maintenance. The road is very rough and there are many potholes. All walks of life use road this from ministers to high-level officials but we fail to understand why the road remains unmaintained,” added Suk Bahadhur Rai.
“It is only when we get passengers that we come here. Otherwise, the road condition is very worse we do not do rounds here. Sometimes we reject and say no to our passengers because we are afraid that our vehicles may get damaged. In the meantime, people are affected,” added Lok Bahadhur Mongar.
“On a daily basis not less than 200 vehicles travel via this road. And Sundays are the worst. We have to take all our agricultural and dairy products to sell at the main town of Damphu. But the road is in pathetic condition. We don’t understand why there is no maintenance,” said Namgay.
The department of roads in Tsirang said, so far, only minor maintenance was carried out along the road due to lack of budget. However, things are expected to improve. The department is in the process of handing over the gewog centre and dzongkhag roads to the Tsirang dzongkhag administration. This is following the Cabinet’s order issued in February this year.
The road’s bad condition was also discussed during the last Dzongkhag Tshogdu.
Namgay Wangchuk
