Yeshey Lhadon
Widening and converting the road between Bhutan Telecom Junction to Jungshina bridge into a four-lane road is expected to complete by June next year.
Thimphu thromde started the project in May this year with a financial aid of Nu 150 million from the Government of India (GoI).
According to the thromde’s project engineers, Ngawang Tashi and Pema Tashi, works are awarded to seven contractors to construct retaining walls, breast walls, drain works and footpaths.
They said thromde is planning to award the work to more contractors to expedite the construction.
The thromde, however, does the earthworks and road permanent work such as laying of granular sub-base (GSB), wet mixed macadam (WMM), dense bituminous macadam (DBM) and asphalt concrete (AC).
The project engineers also claimed works are executed by about 150 Bhutanese workers and uses locally available raw materials except bitumen and hume pipes.
They said contractors are constructing retaining walls and drain works. “They are expected to complete the wall constructions, which construes a major portion of the project, by this December,” Ngawang Tashi said.
The engineers said they completed about 30 percent of the work and progress is affected because of heavy traffic flow along the route, as they have to stop the work during rush hours in the morning and in the evening. “We do overtime to meet the target. We even work during public holidays and weekend,” Ngawang Tashi said.
They also refuted allegations of delayed work. “People thought we have started our project a long time ago but earlier, the road was dug up for water and sewerage project. Our project is different,” Ngawang Tashi said.
He also said the team is positive to complete the project on the given deadline. “It has been six months since the project started but we only worked for five months because of the lockdown.”
Meanwhile, the engineers also claimed that they have placed safety measures at the worksite to avoid risks for both commuters and their workers. They also spray water on the road to control dust pollution according to environment strategic plan.