Close to 40 people from Na-Rang Gewog in Monggar submitted a petition letter to the Dzongkhag Administration last week to look into the quality of the recently blacktopped gewog centre (GC) road. They said they are not satisfied with the quality of the work and hope that their petition will bring improvements in future works.
In the petition letter submitted to the dzongkhag administration, they raised their concerns over spaces left without blacktopping between the road and the side drains. According to them, with the onset of the monsoon, the stormwater will seep inside the soil and damage the entire road.
“It is not only my complaint but even other people are also complaining the same thing. Our first concern is about the space left between the GC road and the side drains. And our second concern is on the installation of high-density polythene pipes instead of concrete pipes in the cross drainage of the GC road,” said a resident of Na-Rang Gewog in Monggar.
“The blacktopping work was carried out manually by the labourers. I feel a paver machine is a must to blacktop the road smoothly. The roller machine also couldn’t level the blacktop properly since it was done manually by man and not by the machine,” said another.
However, Na-Rang Gup Tandin Wangchuk said that if they have concern over the quality of work, they should have raised it when the blacktopping work started. Given the fact that the local government is coming closer, he said there might be some objectives behind such complaint. The gewog administration also hasn’t received any written complaint letter.
“The Dzongrab while coming for the handing taking of the second phase of the blacktopping work told the contractor that he must fill up the gaps by putting the mixture of soil and stones. The contractor also agreed to it. If that’s also not sustainable, the gewog administration and the engineer have agreed to fill up the gap with a concrete mixture during the 2021 and 2022 financial year,” the gup said.
The Gup also said that the gewog administration doesn’t have the responsibility to monitor the quality of work since the Dzongkhag tender committee awarded the contract work.
“Some critic on the social media wrote that the gewog administration must immediately stop the ongoing work but we don’t have that authority. However, the gewog administration has the responsibility to put up people’s grievances to the Dzongkhag Administration. We don’t have the authority to stop the contractor from the ongoing construction work. But the gewog administration has the authority to stop the contract work tendered at the gewog level,” he added.
According to the Site Engineer and the construction company, they blacktopped 3.5 metres of the road width as per the contract terms. Both contractor and the engineer said that there is no term in the contract agreement to blacktop the road from the edge of the road till the side drains. They also added that a thickness of three centimetres, which is up to the national standard, was also maintained while executing the work.
The site engineer also said that there is no clause in the contract agreement that the contractor must use the hume pipes instead of the high-density polythene pipes for the cross drainage. A team from the Dzongkhag tender committee also visited the site last Friday and found no lapses on the contractor’s part. The blacktopping work for over 18 kilometres of the GC road started in March last year.
Sonam Tshering, Monggar
