Having a poor road infrastructure, particularly in the remote parts of the country makes it more difficult for the farming communities to transport their fruits of labour to the markets. This is exactly what is being endured by the farmers of Kangpar Gewog in Trashigang. The frequent blocks along the Gewog Centre Road are delaying the delivery of their cash crops to the market.
The massive landslide in July 2020 washed away a portion of Kangpar GC road. Today, the 100-metre-long stretch is in an appalling state, riddled with loose pebbles. It becomes inaccessible to vehicular traffic every monsoon.
Even if the road is restored and made pliable, residents say travelling along the stretch still sends a chill down their spine.
They also say a fatal accident occurred along the stretch some three weeks ago. The victim assumed dead is still missing.
With road remaining cut off during monsoon, farmers are not able to transport chillies, their main cash crop to the nearby markets on time.
“We cannot take ailing patients to the hospital on time. Here in Kangpar, chilli is the only source of income. But due to regular roadblocks, we can’t take our crops to the market on time,” complains one of the farmers from Zordung village under Kangpar Gewog, Pelden Dorji.
Other residents share similar challenges caused by road woes.
“I run a small shop here and to transport commodities, I have to take this landslide-prone route since it is shorter in distance than the farm road. If I take the longer route, I have to charge more on the goods, which is not in the interest of the farmers,” adds Minjur Tshering, who has a grocery shop in Kangpar Gewog.
There is an alternate route for the farmers, which is via Baydingphu farm road. However, farmers mostly dodge using that road as it is longer in distance than the GC road.
Kangpar Gup updates that the stretch is being cleared after every block. However, owing to loose and landslide-prone areas, there is not much scope for the road to be repaired.
Moreover, the gewog has limited budgets, which need to be directed towards other pressing issues.
“Along this landslide area, we don’t have many options to clear the road. Also, it will cost around Nu 8 M and the gewog does not have that many funds. So, we allocated around Nu 2 M from the disaster’s fund and have been clearing the road till date,” informs Kangar Gup, Sangay Tenzin.
About 500 households in Kangpar commute along the 37 Kilometre long GC road.
Sonam Darjay, Trashigang
Edited by Pema Lhaden
