Relocation: Without basic services like water and electricity crucial to the business, the two automobile workshops in Tsirang are showing reluctance to move to the new location, where plots were already allotted.

The last date to relocate was April 30, but workshop owners said it would be difficult to move without basic infrastructure in place.  The workshop today is located above the bus parking in the town.  Relocation was planned as a part of the town planning.

A notice form the dzongkhag gave them a month’s time- from March 30 to April 30, to relocate and asked them to start immediately.

The proprietor of Phuntsho Automobile, a workshop, which has been running in the present location for the last 21 years, Sangay Wangmo, said that it would be difficult for them to shift to the new place without water and electricity.

“We’ve already piled some construction material in the new location, but starting construction will be difficult,” she said.

The other workshop owner, Zamlha Automobile’s Namgay said that, without the lease agreement being signed, and without infrastructure in place, it would be difficult for them to shift within the given one month notice.

“We’re happy for the land replacement but it isn’t clear how long the land will be leased to us,” he said, adding that if the lease is for 30 years, they would want to construct a double storied building.

Workshop owners however said that they have put up an application to municipal office for water connection and also applied to Bhutan Power corporation to shift their electricity connection to the new location.

Tsirang dzongdag, Ngawang Pem, said the workshops were to be relocated, as the dzongkhag was coming up with lots of developmental areas in the present location.

However she said that the notice served to the workshop owners was not the first time. “We’ve notified them in the past, but they didn’t shift,” she said. “This is the final notice.”

Workshop owners, meanwhile, said they would need some time to relocate.

Yeshey Dema, Tsirang