SARBHANG

Mao Khola may finally have a bridge someday! The department of geology and mines are conducting a sub-soil investiga­tion for the feasibility of the promised bridge over the river.

Design of a single-lane motor cable stay-bridge will hopefully be completed in the next six months, according to the Member of National Assembly from Gelephu, Prem Kumar Gurung.

It is not known when exactly the four gewogs on the other side of Maokhola will have a per­manent bridge over the river to connect them to the rest of Gelephu. A soil study, however, is some progress, given that most people have simply lost hope.

“We don’t know when the promise will be fulfilled. We only know that it is not happening soon,” a farmer said.

In the meanwhile, they will have to carry on as before.

People of four gewogs on the other side of the Maokhola have just com­pleted building temporary bridges over stretches of sand banks over which water still flows.

It is just another annual routine work for the people here. These temporary bridges, built of bamboos and wood, however, will disappear with the onset of the next monsoon.

Then, as the river comes down from the mountains in fury in summer, the people require boatmen to ferry them across to Gelephu. Boatmen from India are employed every summer for about five months when the ferry is needed due to high floodwaters in the river. But even the boats are paralysed for days during huge floods.

People are accustomed to the problem. They are not complaining as they did before unless an outsider asks about their problem. “Now we are used to it,” said an elderly resident of Chuzargang.

Many of them just see it as a distant dream. The feasibility of building a bridge to span over the meandering river to con­nect the villages on the other side of Gelephu calls for an engineering feat.

The people of the four gewogs across the river, who otherwise paid Nu 5 for every trip across the river, however, enjoyed free boat service this summer paid for from the constituency development grant (CDG) budget.

MP Prem Kumar Gu­rung launched the free boat service through CDG budget over Maokhola last August. He faced stiff opposition when he had decided to use CDG fund to pay the salary of the boatmen. The government sanctioned Nu 320,000 for the free boat service proj­ect for 2009.

However, given the re­curring nature of the free boat service, the people are not sure whether they would be in a position to enjoy the same facility next summer.

MP Prem Kumar Gu­rung maintains that It was more important to con­centrate on the immediate need of the people rather than debat­ing on whether it was recurring or not. “People immediately needed the service and it was deliv­ered,” he said.

By M B Subba in GELEPHU in Bhutan Today

Read Users' Comments (0)