5 January, 2009 - The Royal Audit Authority, in its report, has pointed out that the construction of roundabouts, road dividers, and concrete blocks on already blacktopped roads was a bad idea. They robbed road space, which was already narrow, hassled drivers, and wasted scarce government resources, it said.

A long line of thick, expensive looking concrete blocks divide the swimming pool stretch in Thimphu. Work on another one in the city, although a lot less expensive looking, is in progress near the Changlam plaza. There are several roundabouts in the city. Besides limiting space, they confuse most drivers, especially in the presence of quite a few many entries and exits around the same roundabout. These, though not particularly mentioned by the report, are areas of concern, according to Kuensel.

The report also identified many bad roads in the capital and Phuentsholing. “The main reason for such bad surface conditions could be mainly due to manual resurfacing carried out in the past and also due to thin coasting of emulsion used as bitumen,” said the report.

The road above the expressway and below the old workshop, used frequently by residents of south Thimphu, have huge potholes, blocked drains, clogged water and, overall, it was a very bad road, said the report. The ring roads, from Changbangdhu flyover to Kalabazar and below Changangkha monastery, were found to be sorely in need of help. There were many such cases. The new truck parking and the Semtokha-Chamgang feeder road, both resurfaced recently, were in ‘very bad shape with bitumen sealing stripping off and exposing almost the entire base course’. The report said: “resources poured into these have been a total waste.”

Phuentsholing’s 15.1 km of urban road was found to be filled with pebbles and potholes. “Though DoR had undertaken frequent patch filling works, it instead resulted in waste of resources since the completed patch fillings work never lasted one monsoon season,” the report said. A major reason was uncoordinated and constant digging by public facilities providers such cable stations.

Responding to the report, the minister of works and human settlement Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba told Kuensel: “Yes there have been mistakes made in the past and some of the reasons are poor experience and lack of resources.” He added that he did not agree with the concrete blocks on the swimming pool road and that the potholes on new urban roads were symptoms of a larger problem in the system, which, he said, would be addressed.