But Trashiyangtse’s municipal office is yet to allow constructions

Hydropower: With the integrated housing colony at the upcoming Khetsang town approved, Kholongchu Hydroelectric Project (KHP) would rent 200 housing units at Khetsang during its construction phase.

Under the integrated housing colony plan, plot owners of Khetsang would construct houses while KHP would rent the required number of units. Besides, KHP would also be constructing houses for senior project officials.

KHP’s managing director, SK Sharma said the 200 units would be rented on a need basis. For instance, the project would occupy fewer units when the construction of the main components begin and gradually increase as works progress.

“We would require the housing units towards the first quarter of 2017 once preconstruction works complete,” SK Sharma said. “After the project enters the operation phase, we would rent only 100 units as the requirement would then reduce.”

However, construction of houses at Khetsang is yet to commence with only about a year’s time left. With time running out and the municipal office in Trashiyangtse yet to allow constructions, locals are beginning to worry.

This delay, Doksum town thuemi Ugyen Dorji said could affect timely completion of the houses.

“It has been over a decade since talks of relocating Doksum town to Khetsang began, but we are yet to get our construction approvals,” he said. “It is taking long and we’re worried that houses won’t be ready when the project decides to start renting.”

He said that about 20 commercial plot owners are all set to start construction and have been awaiting approval from the municipal office.

“When the ground breaking of Khetsang town construction was carried out on December 13, we expected to start excavating our plots within that month,” he said. “Should it prolong, constructing houses in haste might even compromise quality of the buildings.”

Trashiyangtse’s municipal engineer, Jigme Tshewang said plot owners were not allowed to carry out excavations because drawings for the houses were approved only a couple of days ago.

“Now that the drawings of about 40 commercial plots have been approved, these plot owners should be able to start excavation works soon,” he said.

Given the hilly landscape of the town site, Jigme Tshewang said that excavations would have to be carried out together for all plot owners falling in a single row. In about a week’s time, a public zomdu and planning would be conducted.

Another issue affecting the township is that with only 60 percent of works completed for the 17km water supply line, residents also fear that lack of water during construction time would affect them severely.

To overcome the problem and expedite constructions, the municipal office with financial assistance from KHP has plans to procure water pumps to draw water from the Kholongchu.

Tshering Wangdi,  Trashiyangtse

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