A special ceremony was held at Simtokha Dzong to mark the Government of India’s support for the Gyalsung Infra Project on February 25.

Gyalsung is an important national initiative envisioned by His Majesty The King to build a strong foundation for the future of Bhutan. Its main objective is to build the capabilities of Bhutan’s youth, enabling them to participate in the process of nation-building and empowering them to realize their potential as competent and productive citizens in service of the Tsawa Sum.




Gyalsung has been designed as a 1-year integrated training program, which includes three months of basic military training followed by eight months of technical skills training in ICT, construction, agriculture,   and community security. About 13,000 boys and girls will participate annually in national service training in the five Gyalsung Academies currently being built by Gyalsung Infra.

As a longstanding and committed development partner of Bhutan, the Government of India (GoI) has extended grant assistance of INR/Nu 2 billion for the Gyalsung Infra Project, over and above GoI’s commitment of Plan assistance of INR/Nu 50 billion to the Royal government. This support will ensure that regular bilateral development programs of the Royal government are not impacted. Gyalsung Infra Project welcomes further collaboration of GoI with the Gyalsung Initiative and appreciates GoI’s support beyond planned assistance to Bhutan.




During the ceremony, H.E. Sudhakar Dalela, Ambassador of India, presented the first tranche of grant assistance of INR 1 billion to the Project Director of Gyalsung Infra. This grant assistance will be used for the De-suung for Gyalsung (DFG) program as a special India-Bhutan Friendship Project. The DFG seeks to engage about 11,000 de-suups in the Gyalsung infrastructure construction project through a hybrid skilling and on-the-job training program over the next two years.

The ceremony was attended by the Foreign Minister Dr Tandi Dorji, Ambassador of India to Bhutan Sudhakar Dalela, officials from the Embassy of India, members of the Gyalsung Infra Board, members of the National Service Core Working Group, and management of Gyalsung Infra.