Road: While black-topping work is ongoing for the last gewog centre road in Tang, Bumthang, potholes and other damage is appearing on the Chokhor gewog center road.

The Chokhor gewog centre road was black-topped in the 2014-15 financial year.

Questions are being raised regarding the quality of the road, as it has not even been two-years since it was black-topped.

Chokhor Gup Sangla said he has informed the Departments of Roads (DoR) in Bumthang about the deteriorating road condition. “They said they will repair soon,” he said.

Gup Sangla said he had pointed out that the thickness of the black-top, which is 25mm or almost an inch thick, was not sufficient when it was first being laid.

DoR officials said it is the standard thickness for all gewog centre roads in the country.

The other reason for the blacktop deteriorating was due to trucks carrying heavy loads. “Natural Resources Development Corporation’s trucks keep plying the road” the gup said.

DoR’s executive engineer in Bumthang, Sangay Dorji said they are waiting for materials like emulsion to repair the Chokhor gewog road. He too attributed the damage to trucks carrying loads like timber. “The other reason could be because the road was black-topped for the first time,” he said.

Sangay Dorji said the road was coated with 25mm of blacktop like any other gewog road in the country.

Black-topping of the Tang gewog centre road is currently ongoing and scheduled to be completed soon. Sangay Dorji said of the total length of 17km, 13km will be completed by September this year and the remaining in another four to five months.

DoR has also black-topped 128m of road for the Chumey gewog centre.

The Tang gewog road is the last to be black-topped in Bumthang.

Nima Wangdi | Chokhor

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