Navigating the poor road condition which has been an ordeal for the residents of Tshetedna village in Punakha for over a decade has finally come to an end. The government has improved the seven-kilometer farm road by laying Granular-Sub-Base or GSB. Road improvement works began in November 2022 and were completed in June last year. With the improved road, locals expect to enhance their livelihood in the future with transportation becoming easier and more convenient.
With around fifteen households, Tshetedna village in Kabisa Gewog was initially connected with the farm road during the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
However, despite the government spending money for its renovation, the farm road began deteriorating later which couldn’t be maintained due to budget constraints.
The poor farm road condition gradually forced the residents to carry goods on their backs and walk to the nearest road point. Besides, the road users had to incur losses because of the poor road condition.
However, the farm road improvement works, funded by the Government of India have brought about positive changes.
“Today, it is quite convenient for us to travel. We can come back to our village even at night with our power tiller, as the road condition has been improved. Earlier, it was difficult to drive a power tiller on this road. Moreover, the improved road will also increase the carrying capacity of the power tiller,” said Daw, a resident.
“Once I was disappointed thinking that the road condition was going to remain the same. Those days, we had to leave our vehicles on the highway and drive to the village only when the weather is dry. Only vehicles such as Bolero pickup trucks could reach here. Most of the vehicles had to be parked down at Wakoona which was not even safe. We used to lose tyres and fuel quite often when we kept the vehicles parked along the highway,” said Nado, another resident.
Kinley Wangyel, a resident said “the candidate who got elected in the recent election pledged us that he would blacktop the farm road if he gets elected. So, the people of Tshetedna village are extremely hopeful of getting the road blacktopped soon.”
The road improvement has heightened residents’ hopes and aspirations to produce more agricultural produce. Almost all the people in the village cultivate vegetables as a source of income. Likewise, locals expect to increase the supply of non-wood forest products. The community is known to be rich in fern, mushroom, and cane shoot.
“Our people have expanded their cauliflower cultivation from this year following the road improvement. So far, we cultivated just for self-consumption. But now, people are cultivating on a minimum of 50 decimals of land,” added Nado.
“We have been cultivating vegetables so far but could not cultivate much because of transportation challenges posed by the bad road condition. It was difficult for us to reach our vegetables to the market. But now we are planning to grow more as the road condition has improved,” said Ratu, a resident.
However, construction of drain along the farm road have yet to be completed. The gewog administration says the work will resume soon.
“It is of no use if there is no proper drainage system. The road condition will become bad in summer again. We will try to complete the leftover drain construction before the onset of the monsoon. I am sure we have some budget in the gewog. So, we will figure it out and do it immediately,” said Sonam Dorji, Kabisa Gup.
The project was carried out with a budget of close to Nu 12 M. It is a part of the DNT government’s Economic Contingency Plan to improve farm roads across the country.
Changa Dorji, Punakha
Edited by Phub Gyem
