Nima Wangdi | Dhaka

With the Bangladesh government allocating a plot at the diplomatic enclave at Baridhara, the Royal Bhutan Embassy in Dhaka will soon have a new chancery with Bhutanese traditional architecture.

Baridhara is a 10-minute walk from the present embassy at Gulshan 2.

Fenced with barbed wire and brick walls, the 80 decimals plot for the construction is located next to the Indian Embassy.

Officials at the Royal Bhutan Embassy in Dhaka said the government had already approved the budget for the construction.

They said the works and the human settlement and foreign ministry have approved the drawing. “Cabinet is yet to endorse it.”

Officials also said the construction was deferred due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “A Bhutanese project engineer will be deputed to ensure Bhutanese architecture and quality of the construction.”

With the chancery construction, all the embassy staff can move in. “Chancery with Bhutanese architecture can also provide better visibility,” an official said.

As of now, they live in rented apartments around the embassy. “The present embassy will be turned in to ambassador’s residence and the government won’t have to pay ambassador’s house rent thereafter,” an official said.

President Hussain Muhammad Ershad gifted the two-storeyed present embassy building to Bhutan in 1985.  The building houses three transit rooms as part of public service to Bhutanese travelling around along with the embassy office.

Besides Bangladesh, the Royal Bhutan Embassy in Dhaka also looks after affairs with the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Korea.