Regional Office, DoR Trongsa, on 14th December 2020 have happily updated on the completion of "Telegangchhu Bridge" (2 km from Trongsa town towards Zhemgang) that was undertaken by DNC (Dai Nippon Construction, Japan) and DoR (Department of roads, Bhutan).
This same stretch of road has troubled me like any other traveller and especially the drivers must have fond memories of the road being so erratic and sexy throughout the year. When nothing seems to work out, even our best engineering skills have failed; I've heard some Divine intervention was pursued. But, nothing has worked out, until the Japanese hand was pushed in to perform the miracle. They have impregnated the site with a handsome baby boy. After almost two years of their hardship, they had their baby boy for Bhutan to adopt legally –we are finally happy to receive this long-awaited beautiful baby boy.
"Arigato gozaimasu" –the people of Japan for the continued support.
I have been following every work they undertake in Bhutan because I like their working "attitude" and the "finish line" of their work. Japanese Made-Bridge has always been an example of development for us and has saved us in many ways. I'm the secret admirer of their work. I always make a point to stop by the DNC made bridge. It simply gives me a different kind of happiness and satisfaction, but at the same time it makes me feel sad for not being able to learn anything from them in more than 20 years of their dedicated services to Bhutan.
It is high time to change our working mentality and shift development paradigm modality. Since, the strength of a country is determined by the quality of "public work" each individual performs without being judged by someone. Japanese people are known for being so careful and work addicts, which is clearly shown by how they keep their streets and fashioned themselves.
I've been eyeing them for monitoring and engagement they undertake both at home and away. Their working attitude and quality has never changed that was deeply rooted through a vibrant education system and high-end social culture. Their quality of work and finish line has always been a testament to the world. Their presentation of the body is the work they perform on the ground. For the past two years, I have been constantly following the work progress of this bridge. I made a point to stop –I simply love their working sites for being very carefully mining their labors. Everyone has their own role to play. Safety for both laborers and traveller is always given the utmost priority. Also Engineers in the DNC plan their daily work like a teacher planning their next day's lesson. DNC Engineers execute the same work plan on the day of work. If this "work culture" had gotten in our system, we'd have become richer and stronger centuries ago? Therefore, undertaking every bit of planning is necessary and important for the nation. These very qualities and preciseness has made them the best hand in the world –most trustworthy and reliable people.
We shouldn't feel happy about the foreign AID received so far. Since we haven't realized the importance and understood their objectives. We should feel bad about our inability to learn their work culture in our project. They may be feeling horribly bad with our poor work attitude. Their work culture is the indirect message for us to learn, or an example to use in our project. Had our engineers copied their working culture we would have become an "Armoured Limousine" by now. We should use them, when their hands are still around, when they are still working in our soil. I am afraid that at the end of the Japanese help, we would have learnt nothing. Whatever gain was all the beautiful bridge structures made by Japanese themselves.
It is with such a strong mentality, Japanese are known as the finest people in the world. They have many things to credit for their hardship. Japanese are known for having built the most complicated or best toilet system in the world. Friend of mine said this to me "english people often get angry with Japanese people for making complicated toilets, because they are unable to operate their toilets".
There is so much to learn from Japanese in Drukyul.
I too had thought the same, but when I heard their rates, I was baffled. The rates given to Bhutanese contractors are 10 folds lesser than Japanese Bridges. Meaning, if concrete works are done @ Nu. 8000, they are paid around Nu. 85000, thus I heard.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the add up information. I also had this information but not this clear. However, my point is to say that, when we do things, lets us do it properly with whatever, we have in hand. We need to assure quality and strict monitoring in place. I want our engineers to be in the work site (whatever, maybe the work) monitoring and working with laborers, giving ideas, motivating, and encouraging them. Together we build nation stronger and wiser.
DeleteI stay in a decent government quarter for last five years. I did many minor repairs every year(I am not complaining). However, recently dzongkhag did bit of repair work. Finally after five months, the contractor had his final work on table. The quality of work done was absolutely poor, monitoring was zero, presence of contractors was nill, all the laborers were amateur and undedicated. Anyway the repair work was over.
I saw engineers only for handing taking. On handing taking day, I saw engineers angry and annoyed for the inappropriate work being carried out. Blame here, blame there. I heard the contract was done with quite a handsome budgets. And we still say that we don't have enough budgets to carry out a quality work.