Tshering Namgyal | Mongar

Villagers of Zunglen, a remote village in Drepong gewog in Mongar, have requested their local leaders to repair and improve the village’s farm road.

The farm road, which starts from the gewog centre at Labtsha to Yongrichhu, a small stream before reaching the base of the village, is narrow with a width of just about three metres.  It’s steep with no proper gradient maintained and has sharp turnings.

“We have requested our local leaders and the government to widen it, as driving on the road is unsafe,” a resident, Jamtsho, said.

About three vehicle accidents have occurred on the road, according to him.

Sources said that some of the local leaders and influential people in the community had diverted the road’s alignment.

The road could have reached Zunglen primary school without many curves had it been constructed as per the approved alignment, they added.

The 6.5-kilometre farm road was constructed in 2015.

Some entrepreneurs have expressed their interest to start a bus service in the village if the condition of the road improves, according to the village tshogpa, Rinchen Zangmo.

A person has to pay Nu 2,000 to hire a Bolero pickup truck to reach the gewog centre from Zunglen village.

The road also benefits the people of upper Atola and Changshing Gonpa villages in Thangrong gewog and some households in Kengkhar and Drepong gewogs.

The gewog has plans to lay Granular Sub Base (GSB) in the near future.

However, the residents say that the gewog administration should blacktop the road as the GSB is easily washed away during summer. “The road should be blacktopped,” one of the villagers said.

Drepong Gup Sonam Phuntsho said that the quality of the road needed to be improved, as it was constructed without a proper survey.

“We explored the possibilities of realigning and widening the road. But it’s beyond the gewog’s financial capacity as the annual block grant is just about Nu 10 million,” he said.