Thimphu thromde has announced that transfer of ownership can now be undertaken

Thromde: Much to the relief of land and property owners in the capital, the Thimphu thromde has announced that they can now transfer ownership of land and building, except for the unplanned area in Changzamtog.

The notification comes into effect from Monday, April 20.

The decision comes after three years when the Thimphu thromde, in 2012, stopped land and building transactions when the National Cadastral Resurvey Programme (NCRP) was being conducted.

Head of the survey and land management section with the thromde, Samten Dhendup, said, about 2,800 new lagthrams (land ownership certificates) were issued to the landowners last year after the thromde completed the NCRP in the extended areas.

“The NCRP was carried out to give the most accurate and reliable land information database,” he said.

The NCRP is still ongoing in the core Thimphu area and landowners are expected to receive their new lagthrams next month.

Before the NCRP was carried out, landowners possessed old lagthrams and, to avoid the overlapping of different thram numbers, land and building transactions were stopped, Samten Dhendup said.  The new lagthrams that are now issued to landowners are unique within the thromde and dzongkhags, and there will be no issue of overlapping.

The exception of Changzamtog area, with 350 plots, is because it falls under the new local area plan, which the thromde has sent for approval to the land commission.

After the land and building transactions were stopped, the thromde didn’t accept any applications, despite several requests from the landowners.

“If we’d accepted, it would contain the old lagthrams,” Samten Dhendup said. “To avoid the confusion and duplication of these lagthrams, we didn’t accept any applications since 2012.”

NCRP has been completed in all the rural areas and thromde, except for old Thimphu city and Phuentsholing thromde, which is still ongoing.

Head of the NCRP from the land commission, Tshering Wangchuk, said, from the 1,331 plots in the old Thimphu city, about 220 plots were fine or perfect plots without any issues, excess or deficits.

“These fine plots will immediately be issued with new lagthrams from the commission when the landowners turn up to update their land,” he said.

However, despite several notifications and repeated reminders, only 137 landowners in the core Thimphu area have turned up to update their lagthram till date.

The land commission has even shifted office to the basement of the thromde office for easy access, but landowners still fail to come to update their lagthrams, Tshering Wangchuk said. “We’re now planning to close the office soon.”

“We urge all the landowners to come and update their land so that we can verify the plot, provide them with legal documents and new lagthrams,” Tshering Wangchuk said.

The old Thimphu city area spans from Chubachu to the Memorial Chorten and from the Centenary farmers’ market to Motithang.

By Thinley Zangmo