ADB grant for southern roads

December 15 – The building of the 790 km southern highway, from Sipsoo in the west to Daifam (Jomotsangkha) in the east, took a step forward yesterday with the Asian development bank (ADB) committing USD 38.76 million, its largest grant assistance to Bhutan so far.

The grant to road network project (RNP-II) will be used to upgrade and build segments of the highway and a feeder road, which together total a length of 183 km. The total cost of the project is USD 54.32m, with the government to contribute USD 15.56m.

Specifically, the project will upgrade the 37 km Manitar-Raidak highway, construct new highways between Raidak-Lhamoidzingkha (Kalikhola) (25 km), Panbang-Nganglam (36 km), Samdubchheoing (Bangtar)-Samrang (23 km) and also build a 62-km feeder road from Tsebar via Mikuri to Durungi in Pemagatshel dzongkhag.

The Raidak-Lhamoidzingkha and Panbang-Nganglam roads will be two-lane national highways, which means it will be slighter broader than the existing Trashigang-Dewathang highway.

“Detailed studies on the new highways are still being done,” said the officiating director general of roads, Tshering Wangdi. “So we haven’t fixed any dates on when the work will start.”

At the signing of the project agreement yesterday in Thimphu by the finance minister, Lyonpo Wangdi Norbu, and the ADB director general (South Asian department), Mr Kunio Senga, it was announced that the project would be completed by 2014.

When the project is completed Phuentsholing will be connected to Lhamoizingkha (Kalikhola), but it will require building another 50 km to connect to Phipsoo and another 14 km to connect to the Sarpang-Gelephu highway. “These will hopefully be done in future projects,” said a road official.

With 150 km already existing in bits and pieces along the southern corridor, the project will take the total length of the highway to 333 km or little more than a third of what is required to connect Sipsoo with Daifam.

Sipsoo is already connected with Samtse and an ongoing government project is building a road between Samtse and Phuentsholing.

All construction work will be contracted out to private contractors, road officials said. According to their estimates, it costs about Nu 16.5m to build a kilometre of black-topped road. “This is just an average and could move up or down, depending on the terrain in which the road is being built,” said the officiating director general, Tshering Wangdi.

The project, which is expected to facilitate industrial development in the southern region and provide an alternative to the existing east-west lateral highway, also has a provision to build capacity on quality control, survey and design and vehicle emissions.

ADB is one of Bhutan’s major multilateral development partners. Since 1983 it has financed 24 projects and disbursed more than USD 122m and signed new commitments of up to USD 151m. It’s investment grant to Bhutan totals USD 79m.

source: kuensel