Thromde: While Dagapela residents gave up their hope to see their old town develop into a yenlag throm after Lhamoizingkha was declared one, the recent visit by the works and human settlement minister has renewed their hope for township.

Lyonpo Dorji Choden directed dzongkhag officials and local leaders to identify a land to set up a commercial center in Dagapela. Following her directives, officials surveyed 15 acres of state land near the dratshang and submitted a report to the ministry immediately.

The ministry, however, did not approve the use of state land for the whole commercial hub and recommend including private land.  In response to the recommendation, a team headed by the dzongdag conducted a consultation meeting with the business community of Dagapela yesterday.

Informing the public about the ministry’s response, dzongdag, Tenzin Thinley said that people would not be allowed to use state land for establishing a commercial center.

“We’re here to inform you that the 15-acre government land can’t be used for the commercial centre,” he said. “The business community and land owners have to come up with an alternative, so that we’ve a proper town in future.”

The existing Dagapela town was set up over a century ago and has not seen much development.

Tsendagang gup Bal Bahadur Rana said they were almost sure that Dagapela would be declared as the yenlag throm.

Now that they have another opportunity to develop the town, he has been asked to conduct a consultation meeting with the landowners. A total of 191 acres land was earlier allocated for town planning while a decision of the majority will decide the establishment of a commercial center establishment on private land.

A businessman, Jurmey said it is important for the people of Dagapela to have a proper town and landowners need to cooperate for such development.

“Dagapela has huge potential for businesses,” he said adding that traffic would increase once the Dagapela – Dalbari highway completes.

Thromde Thuemi Nado said Dagapela is central to seven gewogs and has huge business potential. “We are living in such a poor condition where we lack all the facilities that a town requires,” he said.

Dagapela town has 72 registered license holders operating their business on government land.

Yeshey Dema, Dagapela

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