In Samdrup Jongkhar, the residents of Mendrupling village in Phuentshogthang Gewog continue to face transportation challenges in the absence of a motorable bridge over the Deklai River. Currently, the villagers are heavily reliant on a suspension bridge, which poses difficulties in transporting essential items. The lack of a motorable bridge not only affects their daily lives but also hampers economic activities by making it difficult to transport goods to and from the village.
The road to Mendrupling village was constructed about 15 years ago.
The absence of a motorable bridge has resulted in numerous issues for the villagers, especially during the rainy season when the suspension bridge becomes risky to use.
Today, farmers face difficulties transporting agricultural products.
“In summer, we face a lot of problems. We have to keep our vehicle parked here, about 40 vehicles. There are chances that our vehicles will get damaged. Even for students, it is difficult since we do not have a motorable bridge. We have to carry agricultural products on our backs in summer, we have no other option,” said Damber Prasad, a resident.
“Before we had fewer households, now it has increased. We have about 50 households here. We have to carry patients and we are not able to take them to the health centre on time, some died on the way too. And those who are critical get delayed to be transported to Dewathang Hospital. So, it is very important to have one motorable bridge here,” said Khara Nanda Adhikari, another resident.
“We asked the gewog administration to construct a bridge, but they say they do not have budget. They only have Nu 2 M budget. So, we are struggling a lot here,” said Lok Bahadur Gurung, who is also a resident.
According to the Phuentshogthang Gewog Administration, more than Nu 70 M is required to construct a bridge over the Deklai River and the gewog office does not have a sufficient budget.
Meanwhile, the minister for infrastructure and transport says that a bridge over the Deklai River will be constructed in the 13th Five-Year-Plan under the Bridge Flagship Programme.
The minister added that about 1,000 bridges need to be constructed in the country and to construct those bridges a bailey bridge parts manufacturing factory is coming up in the country.
Kinley Wangchuk, Samdrup Jongkhar
Edited by Sherub Dorji
