Nim Dorji  | Trongsa

The last five villages in Trongsa dzongkhag without electricity will have to wait a little longer as the plan to connect the villages with electricity has been deferred to next year.

By the end of 2021, Phumzur, Rewtala, Kurdak, Samcholing Goenpa, and Ngada will be connected with power.

There are more than 30 households in those five villages.

All this village still depends on firewood for cooking. Some households use solar for lighting provided by the government, but many do not have.

Langthel gup Sonam Dhendup said, “The villagers have to walk for hours to charge their mobile phones as the villages don’t have motorable road or electricity.”

The people have been frequently requesting the gewog for power connection.

A resident of Phumzur said, “We go to Jangbi village to charge our mobile phones and we use solar panels to light our homes, which makes our lives difficult.”

It was learnt that a survey was conducted in 2016 for the electrification project of Phumzur.

According to the BPC officials in Trongsa electrification in Rewtala, Ngada and Samcholing Goenpa were planned in the finical year 2019-20 and the government has allocated Nu 17.184 Million.

It was postponed because the Japan International Corporation Agency(JICA) will be funding the project with a grant.

One reason why it was postponed was because of the Covid-19 pandemic since all the materials could not reach the site.

As of now materials worth Nu 3M have arrived at the site and some more materials are to be imported.

Korphu Gup Sangay Khandu said that with most of the places connected with electricity, it was sad to see these villages still struggling in the dark.

The villages are more than 50km away from Trongsa town.