Major road works delayed in Nepal

Thimphu: An acute shortage of aggregate stones has led to a delay in and hike in the cost of almost all major road construction activities, worth in total around Nu 5 billion, like the Thimphu-Paro and Phuentsholing-Thimphu highways, and Thimphu road projects like Deubam, Gongphel and Norzin lams. Aggregate stones are small and fine quality stones of 6 mm size that is used for the final layer before blacktopping.

“Due to an acute shortage of aggregate stones in Bhutan, we won’t be able to meet our March 31 deadline for the Thimphu-Paro highway, with work also getting affected on the Phuentsholing-Thimphu highway,” said Dantak chief engineer, Rajesh Tyaji. “The cost of the entire stretch will now also go up, because we’ll now have to arrange for more expensive stones from West Bengal.”

It is the same picture with the Nu 130 million Deubam lam project in Thimphu being done by Nima Construction. The executive director of the company, Leki Dorji, told Kuensel, “The shortage and rationing of the 6 mm stones has led to our entire project cost going up, with us paying now almost double for stones from Ethalbari in West Bengal.”

Nima officials say that they will not be able to meet the March 31 deadline and have secured permission from the government for an extension upto April to try and complete the road.

The Department of Roads is, however, facing a more complicated situation, with not enough funds to buy aggregates from outside while still having to meet the deadline. The department is in charge of the Norzin and Gongphel lams and 6-7 connecting roads in Thimphu.

The existence of only three stone quarries supplying the Paro- Thimphu area and also Dantak’s failure to get permission for their own quarry sites have further worsened the problem of this escalating demand. The largest supplier, supplying around 90 percent of the aggregates, is in Jemina, owned by the Singye Group.

“We’re used to only supplying 25 to 30 trucks at peak season, but now we’re producing around 150 trucks a day” said the managing director of Singye Group, Ugen Tshechup. The strain is telling on the Singye quarry, with 120 labourers at Jemina working 16 hours a day since February. According to Singye officials, there have also been some breakdowns of overburdened equipment. Of the 150 truckloads produced in a day, only six truckloads are of 6 mm stones.

According to a confidential DoR document, a joint Dantak-DoR team in July 2004 identified ten quarry sites along the Damchu- Phuentsholing, area but the department of geology and mines (DGM) could not agree on any of these sites. In September 2006, after two years of negotiations, DGM withdrew from negotiations on the grounds that Dantak was not following the terms and conditions.

“The joint DoR and Dantak team had failed to agree to the various DGM procedures like on undercutting, leasing and other formalities,” said a DGM engineer. Eventually in January 26, 2007, Dantak was asked by DoR to avail the services of Singye Crushers at Jemina.

Immediately in June 2007, Dantak complained that Jemina was not meeting their demand for the various projects like the airport and the highways.

Dantak has now decided that, in addition to the Jemina supplies, it would take additional supplies from Ethelbari in West Bengal. “Although this will push up our quarry costs by 25% and also delay sections of our projects, we have no other option but to get the 6mm stones from Ethelbari,” said Lt Colonel Batra of Dantak.

Clarifying his stand on the supply shortage, Ugen Tshechup said that, if orders were placed in advance and the necessary bank guarantees given, there would have been no shortage in the 6mm category. “Besides we can’t afford to take losses by overstocking, since we lack space and also because the demand is temporary,” he added.