Road: Her Majesty the Queen Mother Tshering Pem Wangchuck inaugurated the road that connects Bjemina and Chimitanka in Thimphu yesterday.

Project DANTAK resurfaced the 3.1km feeder road that now connects Bjemina to the Bhutan Youth Development Fund (YDF) rehabilitation centre in Tsaluna, Chimitanka. The Queen Mother is YDF’s president.

According to project DANTAK, the road measuring three metres in width and 30cm in thickness was resurfaced with cementitious sub base layer using the latest technology at a cost of Nu 15 million (M).

The road has been improved to speed up the on-going construction of the rehabilitation centre, which began last year. The road is expected to benefit about 45 households in the area besides the construction.

YDF’s project manager Kinley Tenzin said that there is no rehabilitation centre in the country at a national level as of now.

He said that with the increasing number of people abusing substances and alcohol, YDF took the initiative of setting up a permanent infrastructure for rehabilitation centre.

“Drugs issue is on the rise while we provide the same rehabilitation services for now owing to lack of facility and infrastructure,” he said. “In the new centre, we can accommodate more people and we’ll be able to provide better facilities as well.”

Besides the usual treatment, the new centre will facilitate wholesome programmes to its occupants from life to vocational skills so that the recovered addicts can apply the acquired skills to make their lives better upon leaving the centre.

YDF officials said that there are 24 recovering addicts at the temporary rehabilitation centre in Serbithang today.

The new centre in Tsaluna that is expected to be complete next year will accommodate more than 60 people.

The construction of the new centre is estimated to cost over Nu 126M.

Her Royal Highnesses Princess Chimi Yangzom Wangchuck and Kezang Choden Wangchuck accompanied the Queen Mother at the inaugural.

Dechen Tshomo

Advertisement