Kanglung-T/gang highway widening works cause commuter woes

Widening works along the 15km Trashigang –Kanglung highway, which was supposed to be completed last month is causing innumerable woes to commuters.

The works began more than a decade ago but its slow progress has resulted in inconveniences to those who ply the road.

For instance, Dawa Dema, a shopkeeper based in Kanglung had to reach the Trashigang hospital by 9am. “In order to reach there on time, I reserved a taxi and started early but the road widening works had me waiting for more than two hours midway.”

She said that the roadside laborers are seen working everyday but the work seems to be moving at snail’s pace.

Similarly, a monk from Kanglung Shedra along with his three friends had to walk from Rongthong till Kanglung Shedra due to a road block below Rongthong.

Residents from Kanglung said that earlier it used to take around half an hour to reach Trashigang but now the journey stretches to more than an hour.

“I hope project DANTAK completes the widening work before the monsoon starts as the road condition worsens in the summer,” said a taxi driver from Kanglung.

Rinchen Choden, a student from Sherubtse College said, that though this is her second year in Kanglung, she has never been to Trashigang because of the bad road conditions.

Additionally, she said that since most services are based in Trashigang, she is not able to avail them.

A DANTAK official in Kanglung said that the deadline for the road completion has been extended till April. “We could have completed the works by March but the unexpected rocks in the widening sites prolonged our work and the bad weather prevented work for a couple of weeks,” he said.

The official also said that most times commuters do not cooperate with the authorities by speeding at the sites causing problems to the workers.

“We are already done with the cutting work and now we are left with only around 2km of blacktopping work,” added the DANTAK official.

More than 300 laborers are working on the road widening.

Jigme Wangchen from Kanglung, T/gang