Tshering Namgyal | Lhuentse

The new vegetable market shed at Phaling in Lhuentse is benefiting both residents and vegetable vendors.

In the absence of a permanent vegetable market, the people had to wake up early to buy vegetables from vendors from Jang and Ngar villages.

“The local vendors used to come only twice a week,” a civil servant said.

Yangden, also a civil servant, said she would often go to Mongar or ask her relatives to send vegetables from there. “Now vegetables are available anytime and it is very convenient.”

The two-storey shed was inaugurated last month. There are at least 12 vegetable vendors on the top floor. There are two meat shops and a livestock products shop on the ground floor.

“There are buyers from everywhere and the business is picking up,” a vendor Dechen Wangmo, said.

Each vendor pays a monthly rental charge of Nu 500.

However, vendors said that lack of toilet was a problem. The shed does not have power sockets.

“Without a toilet, hygiene could become a problem,” a vendor said.

The dzongkhag administration has plans to renovate the old toilet above the market area.

The government and GEF-LDCF supported the Nu 5.8 million project.