Staff reporter

The Department of Road’s (DoR) maintenance division had written to Project DANTAK to rectify the Dzongkha spellings of places on road signboards along the Thimphu-Phuentsholing highway.

The division’s chief engineer, Dorji Gyeltshen P, said they asked DANTAK to rectify the spellings a few days ago and they were told that it is already in the process of correcting the spellings.

This comes after an individual, Monu Tamang, wrote about the issue on Facebook along with photographs, pointing out the incorrect and different Dzongkha spellings for Thimphu and Rinchending.

He wrote that concerned authorities should rectify the errors. “There are lots of other funny signage along the highways also.”

A regular commuter along the highway, Tshering, also agreed that something should be done with the signage, as it appears no one is concerned about the Dzongkha spellings and also funny messages.

He questioned if the works and human settlement ministry and DoR, in particular, monitored Project DANTAK complied with the road signage standard. “We were told that all the signs and writings from the highways would be removed, but nothing much has been done along this highway.”

The Bhutan Standards Bureau (BSB) approved the standard road signage, ‘Road Safety Signs and Symbols’ (RSSS) with DoR as the implementing agency and the ministry had notified Project DANTAK to comply with the road signage standards in June 2017.

A Thimphu resident, Thinley, said that with DoR and the ministry not implementing the RSSS strictly, such errors are bound to happen. “It’s the responsibility of the department to implement the guidelines. If the officials do not want to be serious, why frame the guideline.”

The RSSS was introduced to standardise road safety signs and symbols to ensure that it is consistent. The RSSS was to have a common method to communicate safety information with continued growth in international trade, travel and mobility of workers.

The guideline prescribes general requirement for development and layout of road safety signs and road markings to be used on Asian or national highways, dzongkhags, thromdes, and gewog roads.

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