It won’t be long when the capital city of the country will have two multi-storey parking facilities to accommodate the growing number of vehicles in the city.
Thimphu Thromde is highly hopeful to complete the parking structures by this July and August.
Thromde planned to develop the facilities in 2011, but works took shape only in 2015. Thromde attributed the delay mainly due to good number of years spent in designing the structures and finalising the site.
“It would not be useful if the parking is not constructed in necessary places. Therefore we have taken more than a year in locating the right place for construction. After all this, we had to get permission from government and follow many procedures in tendering the works,” said Thimphu’s Mayor (Thrompon), Kinlay Dorjee.
Thrompon Kinlay Dorjee also cited other reasons such as lack of professionals which impeded the work progress.
However, he emphasised that besides having all the necessary facilities inside the parking structures, ensuring quality and efficiency is of foremost importance than meeting the deadline.
KCR Company is executing the two multi-storey parking structures. They are being constructed at two different places in Thimphu’s main town area. One is being built above the Lungtenzampa BOD fuel station and other one, near the Zangdopelri Shopping Complex.
The KCR Company is a joint venture of three companies, two from Bhutan and one from Nepal. The project is done in the Public- Private Partnership model. This means KCR is investing in the infrastructure development.
They will manage the parking areas and two multi-storey parking structures for 22 years from now. The new facilities will have the capacity to accommodate some 550 vehicles.
Today, there are more than 30,000 vehicles in Thimphu alone.