I grew up watching the groundwork of one of the biggest Hydropower Projects in the country a decade ago. Back then as a little schoolboy, traveling between Tsirang and Thimphu used to be entertaining stretch between Wangdue and Tsirang. Not sure about the other passengers, but I have a deep inclination towards this project and seamlessly made memories to last eternity. It was around this place I saw heavy and complicated machines operating on the walls and deep valleys like in dreams.
Like any other traveler, every time I take a journey, I purposefully take a chance to keep myself awake throughout the area so that I can silently enjoy the unearthing and tunneling work. On several occasions, I counted the number of long and big lorry ferrying with project materials only to find the numbers were puzzling. However, what amazed me most was the tunneling works and still today I find it to be an amazing art of human work. The tunnel always kept me wondering about the depth and its ending points. I never felt my bus journey was boring and long. I too never felt the roads were bumpy, risky and slippery unless I started to drive myself a decade later.
On one occasion, while traveling with my mom, I put my own interpretation and explained many things to her and much later, I realized some discussion was quite funny and useless. I'm so sure, she won't remember beyond a few tunnels and machines.
The area for most passersby used to be the exhibition piece –especially tunneling and display of machinery. I never thought such Rocky Mountains could be dug like easy Rat Hole and change the course of the powerful Punatsangchhu, since we are incapable of building a suspension bridge over it.
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Despite many odds, one thing that never failed to impress me was the Highway Tunnel at Rurichhu. Ever since I saw this breathtaking tunnel, I have desired for many more to come on our roads, since I found this could be a game changer for our country.
Highway Tunnel –DUNGKARBJA, is the Landmark Civil Engineering Piece Born out of PHPA and it should serve as the sample for us to drive deeper into our development paradigm. I hope many more of such pieces will get through the table of our bureaucrats as we become mature and strong in our economic status. Such development will not only reflect on our strength of underground space engineering but also greater human experts and resources. I always wish our civil engineering sector take this matter seriously in hand as we face the razor of the changing times.
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| Entry From Tsirang Side |
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| Mid-way Tunnel |
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| Exit Toward Wangdue |
Since the never ending roadblocks, falling boulders, sinking areas, potholes, etc, have raised a huge national concern and eaten up a huge government fund every year. We must plan more reliable and safer road networks with tunneling at necessary points. It is high time for us to realize and plan on our past development errors. So far, we have lost invaluable land and other resources into broad valleys of India, we can't afford to lose more of our prestige and scarce land piece anymore. As we progress in a new era, full of technology and experts, one thing I always hope can solve our road issue is underground tunneling technology, it will not only save our land resources, but also rich biodiversity of the plant and animal kingdom.
Tunneling Lamperi to Hongtsho not only save travel time, but also serve a great deal of snow drive and thick foggy areas and save rich biodiversity. However, this human art takes careful planning and dedication.
Above all, such development shift would become a country's wealth and strength...
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