How farm roads are built

If Bhutan’s villages are changing today, it’s mainly due to new farm roads. Since the DPT government came into power, farm roads have gone to many villages in almost all the dzongkhags. But in most gewogs, the construction of the roads doesn’t seem to follow a clear direction and plan.

While the villagers know the importance of farm roads to them, there are resentments against farm road construction in many villages. They are mostly concerning how the roads have meandered on the fringes of the villages to avoid influential properties being bulldozed. In some villages, it doesn’t take an engineer to see how the direction and alignment of the roads have been changed in favour of certain properties and at the cost of many households.

Although the dzongkhag authorities are required to oversee the construction of farm roads, they do not seem to be fully involved. As expected, the gewog authorities seem to have a free rein in the expensive affair of the villages both in terms of government expenditure and the loss of people’s farmland. And the gewog authorities seem to buckle under the pressure from their close relatives.

In some villages, there is an obvious lack of coordination between gewog and dzongkhag authorities. The farmers, in between, are left at the mercy of gewog officials who they think are often unfair and partial in their decisions.

By rule, farm roads should be built to benefit the maximum number of households. But at the village level, officials face difficulties in following this rule. No farmer wants the road to ‘destroy’ her land. That’s when cajoling, pleading and threatening starts. And that’s when officials relent. And that’s when the plan goes wrong.

The planning and building of farm roads will have long-term impact on the lives of our farmers. Therefore, it should be done in the most transparent and professional manner. Since the dzongkhag authorities have the technical capacity to carry out good road construction, they should engage more closely in the execution of farm road construction. Besides, gewog officials, particularly the gup and mangmi, executing a farm road plan can be susceptible to influence from relatives.

At the end of the day, it’s not the length but the quality and reach of the farm roads that will determine their success.