MB Subba | Haa

The Haa-Samtse secondary highway, which will connect Haa to the border town of Phuentsholing via Samtse, is nearing completion.

Chief Engineer of the Department of Roads (DoR), Thimphu region, Chador Gyentshen, said that the department awarded the construction of 68km of the 70.5km road to various contractors in packages.

“About 75 percent of the awarded works have been completed,” Chador Gyentshen said.

The work was supposed to be completed by the end of 2017.

He said that the construction of the remaining 2.5km road would be awarded soon.

The contractors are expected to complete their share of the works by December this year as per a directive from the Haa dzongkhag administration.

The budget for the project will last till June 2020.

Informing the Haa Dzongkhag Tshogdu (DT) about the work progress, the chief engineer said that the inclement weather had hindered the work progress.

According to him, it will be a 146km road from Haa to Phuentsholing via Samtse and will comprise gewog centre roads.

He informed that the works on the gewog centre had been completed. “There are much works left now,” he said.

The Haa DT chairperson, Thinley, expressed concerns about the delay in the completion of the secondary highway. According to him, the DT wrote to the Ministry of Works and Human Settlement (MoWHS) but did not receive any response.

Thinley said that the contractors were unable to execute the work on time. The contractors, according to him, had promised to complete the work earlier.

“We discussed the issue in our sixth and seventh sessions in presence of DoR officials who had assured that the works would be complete by the end of this year,” Thinley said.

The road also connects remote gewogs in Haa. In Haa, the highway starts from Jyenkana in Samar Gewog and reaches Sombekha Drungkhag.

Thrizin Thinley said that the works should be accelerated when the weather condition was favourable. He expressed hope that the contractors and officials would execute the work without lapses.

The road is expected to bring economic benefits to the dzongkhag.

The road construction works is executed by DoR.