People living along the Samtse–Tashichhoeling secondary national highway and Tashichhoeling–Tendruk Dzongkhag highway have been long yearning for the renovation of these roads. And, after years of riding the bumpy road, renovation works are finally in sight.
The Department of Roads (DoR) in Samtse will carryout major renovation along these highways.
The 75-kilometre stretch of road from Samtse till Tendruk begins at the tri-junction just above the Bhutan India border gate and goes past seven gewogs along the way. Despite the distance not being so far, travel time gets doubled due to the worsening condition of the road. And this has been going on for several years.
“The road was last renovated in 2014. Since then, for several years it hasn’t been renovated. With the worsening road, people had to do a lot of vehicle maintenance works. This has become a problem,” said Nima Dukpa, the Chairperson for Samtse Dzongkhag Tshogdu.
“The road condition from Sibsoo till Tendruk is worse. There are potholes everywhere. And, it has been several years without renovation on this road. What is supposed to be an hour journey takes us 30 minutes or an hour more,” added Karma Wangchuk, from Tendruk in Samtse.
For the financial year 2019-2020, Nu 15 M has been approved for renovating the stretch of road. The DoR in Samtse says this budget is only enough to renovate five kilometres. Works are underway with this budget.
A further Nu 120 M has been granted to the Dzongkhag as part of the 2018 National Day Footprints Initiative to renovate the Samtse–Tendruk highway. Of the Nu 120 M, Nu 23 M will be used to renovate an initial 2.3 kilometres from Samtse to primary national highway standard. This is being done to accommodate the high density of heavy trucks carrying river dredged materials.
Nu 53 M will be used to renovate 23 kilometres of the road till Tashichhoeling and 18 kilometres of the dzongkhag road from Tashichhoeling to Tendruk will be renovated using the remaining Nu 43 M. The DoR in Samtse is waiting for budget release from the department to carry out these works.
Sherub Dorji
