This is two years after residents moved to the new location

Development: Dagana dzongkhag has a fairly new town. But two years after businesspeople moved to the new township, amenities of a town like proper drainage system, internal road networks and proper connected drinking water are still missing.

Shopkeepers of the small town shifted to the new town in December 2013. They were promised the necessary infrastructure as soon as they move.

A hotel owner, Kaka, said that it is high time the municipal provided them basic infrastructure like water connectivity, internal road blacktopping and proper drainage system.

“Without the roads being blacktopped, dust during the winter and mud during the monsoon is a problem to the shopkeepers near the road and we have to clean our shops more than 10 times a day,” he said. “A year-old house looks like a very old house because of the dust and condition of the town area,” he added.

Another resident, Sonam said that if the infrastructures are not put in place, there are chances of house owner losing their tenants. “If the tenants are not provided with good drinking water connection and hygienic surroundings, we will lose them one day,” he said.

He added that Dagana town doesn’t look like a town as they hardly see customers visiting the shops. Sonam said that to attract customers the town itself should look attractive.

However, dzongkhag engineer Jampel Dorji said that the budget for constructing the basic infrastructure in the town is ready.

“Most  of the people were constructing the houses in the past one year and we postponed the construction of the infrastructure so that it will not be damaged,” he said. “It is obvious that the infrastructure like car parking and other things would be damaged while constructing the house, so we planned to do it later,” the engineer added.

Dzongkhag officials said the ADB-funded water project took off in May 2012 and is ready. “All people have to do is connect their buildings with pipes.”

By Yeshey Dema, Dagana

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