དཔལ་辡ན་འ宲ུག་ག筴ང⼍ ཞཞབས་ཏོག་ལྷ་ཁག ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN MINISTRY OF WORKS AND HUMAN SETTLEMENT “Construction Industry: Solution Through Innovation and Improved Technology” thimphu: bhutan QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 6: Issue 1 www.mowhs.gov.bt July– Sept 2017
Contents 1 APA 2017-18 signed 3 Thirteenth Quarterly Meeting 4 Policy and Planning Coordination Meeting Decisions 6 Denchukha bridge 7 Inaugurations 7 Bridge Launched 9 Gasa Dzongkhag Road Visit
APA 2017-18 signed August 7 Last financial year 2017-18 Annual Performance Agreement signed between the Ministry and the Prime Minister in the Banquet Hall The Annual Performance Agreement ministry’s planning process improved; for the completion of Northern East for the final financial year, 2017-18 of and people more mindful when setting West Highway; the 440 km of gewog the ministry with the prime minister priorities and targets. center roads blacktopping and 60 km of was signed in the Banquet Hall. Unlike Lyonpo said that 2017-18 being the last national highway resurfacing; ongoing in the past, the signing ceremony wit- financial year of the 11th plan and that construction of 13 bridges and initiating nessed signing of the agreement between of the government’s tenure, the priority construction of 12 more bridges; achiev- the minister and the secretary, and the activities of the government have been ing 50 percent and 90 percent of com- secretary with the departments. The incorporated. Accordingly, Nu. 9.22 bil- pletion for Rinchending and Bumpagang Annual Performance Agreement of the lion is approved for the 2017-18 financial ICP; expediting the execution of donor Thimphu Thromde was also signed with year’s capital budget. Of the total capital funded projects (World Bank and Asian the prime minister. budget, activities worth Nu. 7.5 billion Development Bank); preparing 6 Local Hon’ble minister in her welcome will be carried by the roads department, Area Plans and carrying out 8 technical address thanked the Government Nu. 1.15 billion by the engineering ser- studies; and drafting of policies namely Performance Management office for -as vices department and Nu. 0.5 billion by national construction industry policy sisting in preparing the 2017-18 Annual the human settlement department. and revision of the housing policy. Performance Agreement. Lyonpo said that The major capital activities to be Hon’ble Lyonpo highlighted that erratic with the start of the GPMS, allocation carried out by the ministry, Lyonpo in- monsoon, unstable topography and as- of resources has become efficient; the formed are: 137 km of pavement works surance …continued on page. 10
Quaterly Newsletter Ministry of Works and Human Settlement 1 Damchu Chukha Bypass Road
1 2
he formation cutting on Chukha-Damchu bypass road is finally through. Hon'ble Lyonpo, secretary and director, visited the completed section of the road on 15 August Ttogether with DANTAK chief Engineer. The balance work is on Jangtalum bridge (1) which is expected to completed by November 2017 and the Tanalum bridge, (2) which is expected to be completed by June 2018. དཔལ་辡ན་འ宲ུག་ག筴ང⼍ ཞཞབས་ཏོག་ལྷ་ཁག ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN MINISTRY OF WORKS AND HUMAN SETTLEMENT “Construction Industry: Solution Through Innovation and Improved Technology” thimphu: bhutan QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 6: Issue 1 www.mowhs.gov.bt July– Sept 2017
Thirteenth Quarterly Meeting 10-12 August 2017 The 13th DoR Quarterly Meeting was held from 10-12 August in Chuniding Resort, Serbithang, Thimphu. The three-days meeting was chaired by laying of AB mattress in Sarpang director and attended by chief engineers, during construction time. project coordinators, executive engineers, 3. Highest priority should be ac- accountants and engineers from DoR HQ, corded in preparing, monitor- DES's New Director Regional and Project Offices. ing and reviewing APA and it The ministry welcomed the new di- The Annual Performance Agreement should be well coordinated and rector of Department of Engineering between the director and the chief en- represented by the chief engi- Services, Mr. Karma dupchuk on gineers were signed in the presence of neers from the head quarter. 25 September, 2017. the secretary. 4. Proper process of site handing-tak- Prior to his appointment as The following are few of the important ing should be done officially in the the director, he served in Gelephu broad decisions taken during the three- presence of both the parties and Thromde as a chief Engineer. day quarterly meeting: a proper record should be main- He started his career as Assistant 1. Contracts should be terminated after tained. Contractor’s performance Engineer with earstwhile depart- expiry of liquidity damage period score to be assessed by Regional ment of urban development and after imposing penalties and should Level Tender Committee (RLTC) housing. be reported to the award committee. instead of leaving it to concerned He has masters in structural 2. Whenever there are new technol- site engineers. Following the com- engineering from the University ogies being implemented, aware- pletion of works, regional offices of Technology, Sydney Australia. ness and dissemination of infor- should submit a copy of completion mation should be done and the report with performance score of engineers should be trained in it. the contractors to the construction Such training must be conduct- division. The construction division ed for Zeocrete pavement con- will upload the information on struction under Lingmethang and ministry’s …continued on page. 5
New Director for DoR On 31 July, 2017, Mr. Tenzin, direc- tor of the department of engineer- ing services joined Department of Roads as its new director. Mr. Karma Galay, the then director honoured by His Majesty the King as the new Sarpang Dzongdag.
Quaterly Newsletter Ministry of Works and Human Settlement 3 དཔལ་辡ན་འ宲ུག་ག筴ང⼍ ཞཞབས་ཏོག་ལྷ་ཁག ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN MINISTRY OF WORKS AND HUMAN SETTLEMENT “Construction Industry: Solution Through Innovation and Improved Technology” thimphu: bhutan QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 6: Issue 1 www.mowhs.gov.bt July– Sept 2017
Policy and Planning Coordination Meeting Decisions Three PPCMs (39, 40, 41) were held in the last quarter which discussed on many policies and coordination issues.
1. As per Hon’ble Prime Minister’s direc- 4. The Multi Year Activities must capture ing component. tive the Ministry should organize 9th the remaining fund requirement in the 7. It was informed that as far as possi- Engineers’ Conference in the begin- 12th FYP along with cost escalations ble, finance ministry will not agree to ning of in March or April, 2018. if any. The departments must ensure budget re-appropriations/technical Policy and Planning Division to lead that the activities do not spill over to adjustments. But, such issues can be and start working on it. The confer- the 12th Plan except for Multi Year discussed and agreed upon during ence will be of 3 days’ duration in the Activities. Supplementary incorpora- midterm review i.e. in December month of March 2018 at the earliest, or tion of donor funds should be based 2017. Therefore, midterm review of in April or May 2018. The conference on the implementation capacity. The the budget should be seriously car- shall be held in Thimphu at the Royal departments were advised to ensure ried out. Banquet Hall, unless decided to be that there is no under-utilization of 8. The progress on formulation of con- held in another location, preferably budget. In case of works, if the tender struction policy was updated with spe- in Gyalposhing in Mongar. amount exceeds the approved budget, cific review on the terms of reference. 2. The directorate services will start the additional funds shall be secured The detailed costing for recruitment of new procurement division as soon as before finalizing the award. individual international and local con- RCSC formalizes and officially com- 5. Retreats outside the workplace, citing sultants to be submitted to the Ministry municates the approval granted in the disturbances must be avoided as for onward submission to the World principle to the ministry. this leads to the escalation of costs. Bank for financing consideration, and 3. All departments must prepare an 6. Seeking re-appropriations to non- the specific ToRs to be finalized at the annual procurement plan for services panned and ad-hoc activities should earliest—at least the ToRs for individu- including consultancy immediately in be avoided. No re-appropriations shall al international and local consultants to line with e-GP and approved budget. be considered to the ex-country train- initiate their…continued on page. 5
Project Signed for bridge reconstruction 29 September 2017 The Project for reconstruction of bridges on highway No. 4 (Gelephu-Trongsa Highway) successfully signed today between Department of Roads, MoWHS and Dai Nippon Construction (DNC), Tokyo, Japan under Japan's Grant Aid in presence of the consultants. Four bridges namely Passang Zam, Samkhara Zam and Beteini Zam under Sarpang Dzongkhag and Telegangchu Zam under Trongsa Dzongkhag will be reconstructed starting from October 2017. The construction for all the four bridges will be completed by January 2020.
Quaterly Newsletter Ministry of Works and Human Settlement 4 དཔལ་辡ན་འ宲ུག་ག筴ང⼍ ཞཞབས་ཏོག་ལྷ་ཁག ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN MINISTRY OF WORKS AND HUMAN SETTLEMENT “Construction Industry: Solution Through Innovation and Improved Technology” thimphu: bhutan QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 6: Issue 1 www.mowhs.gov.bt July– Sept 2017
Thirteenth Quarterly Meeting continued from pg. 3…webpage. immediately. In such cases, regional 5. All medium level and large offices can also hire machineries works with contract duration of from other agencies at CDCL rates. 6 months and above should have 9. Chief Engineer of the milestone contract and should Phuentsholing Regional Office be clearly defined in the bidding presented a detail case study on documents. The regional offic- contractual issues faced by them. es were informed to follow the The director appreciated the effort guidelines on milestone contract and suggested other regional offices issued by construction division. to document such issues which will 6. To upload the contractor’s work benefit the decision makers and progress along with performance the department in proper docu- follow up regarding the same. score on the ministry’s webpage. menting of unique contract cases. 11. Regional offices to submit the 7. As a means of good practice, re- 10. Tingtibi Regional Office high- destination details when put- gional offices were asked to start the lighted the requirement of name ting up requisition for bitumen. construction of drains first and then tag and offence ticket system Also, to have a uniform format proceed with the pavement works. to be used by road inspectors for weight of the bitumen, the 8. To hire machineries from CDCL during the inspection. The floor meeting decided to use up to two during emergencies only if Annual decided that maintenance divi- decimal places for weights (0.00). Hiring Agency is not able to deploy sion will look into the matter and
Policy and Planning Coordination Meeting Decisions continued from pg. 4… recruitment and development in Thimphu and soon. The formulation of the policy surrounding Dzongkhags of Paro, document should be need to be com- Punakha and Wangduephodrang. pleted by March 2018. 11. It was considered important that the 9. Two proposals were con- important works undertaken by the sidered for submission as flagship Ministry is adequately and appropri- Hon'ble Zhabtog Lyonpo met with the programmes in the 12th FYP: es- ately showcased using mass-commu- officer incharge of Project DANTAK tablishing 12 Road Maintenance nications media, such as BBS TV. The at Narphung on July 20 and discussed Centres along the Northern East-West ministry will continue to hold BBS TV to minimize the risk and incovenience Primary National Highway; and Flood panel discussions. The MoU with the faced by road commuters during the Management and Development Project BBSC will be renewed for another year course of road widening activities along in Gelephu. These proposals shall and the very next panel discussion will Samdrupjongkhar-Trashigang PNH. need to be properly formulated for be undertaken on structural safety Hon'ble Lyonpo urged there should be consideration as flagship programmes and integrity of building, focusing on proper monitoring of traffic manage- as per the Guidelines for the flagship retrofitting and earthquake proofing ment during road opening time to avoid programmes. measures adopted to minimize collat- traffic conjestion at narrow and unstable 10. To explore the possibility and submit a eral damages during earthquakes. The road stretch. Project DANTAK agreed to proposal on Thimphu Capital Region, PPD shall collaborate with the EARRD, properly monitor the traffic hanceforth detailing the expansion and growth DES to hold the panel discussion. to avoid mishap. needs in terms of human settlement
Quaterly Newsletter Ministry of Works and Human Settlement 5 Denchukha bridge 27 July 2017 Information and communication minister, DN Dungyal, inaugurated the 400-foot Bailey Suspension Bridge connecting Dophuchen gewog with Denchukha gewog. The 400-foot span Bailey Suspension Denchukaha with population around Druk Phunsum Construction Private Bridge which connects Dophuchen 4244. The people of Gakiling gewog of Company Limited at the cost of Nu. gewog with Denchukha gewog under Haa dzongkhag also uses the bridge. 18.152 million for a duration of 18 Samtse dzongkhag was inaugurated by The dzongkhag had planned to months starting from December 12, Lyonpo D.N. Dungyel, on 27 July 2017. construct the bridge and had already 2012 till 15 June 2014. The bridge is the lifeline for Denchukha procured the bridge parts. The work When the work started, the design of and its people. The inauguration of the was awarded to DoR as a deposit work. the left bank anchorage blocks, which motorable bridge brought much relieve Later, with the government directive was initially designed as a rock an- and joy to them. Previously, in the to take over all the GC roads from chorage, had to be modified as there absence of the motorable bridge they dzongkhags, the bridge construction was no solid rock. Consequently, the would carry loads on their back from work too was taken over by DoR as the design approach of the right bank, soil the bridge point, Pultar, to their village, construction was on the Denchukha GC anchorage blocks, had to be adopted. which is about an hour-long journey. road. The construction of Anchor Blocks The changes in the left bank anchorage There are about 582 households in and Bridge Abutments was awarded to blocks, how-…continued on page. 8
Quaterly Newsletter Ministry of Works and Human Settlement 6 དཔལ་辡ན་འ宲ུག་ག筴ང⼍ ཞཞབས་ཏོག་ལྷ་ཁག ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN MINISTRY OF WORKS AND HUMAN SETTLEMENT “Construction Industry: Solution Through Innovation and Improved Technology” thimphu: bhutan QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 6: Issue 1 www.mowhs.gov.bt July– Sept 2017
Inaugurations His Excellency the Prime Minster inaugurated 17 Km Tang GC road on 29 August , Hon'ble Tengye Lyonpo inaugurated Goshing GC road on August 7 and Hon'ble Zhabtog Lyonpo inaugurated Yangzer GC road on 18 July 2017
The 17 km Tang GC road 46.4 million, which is roughly The 12 km Goshing GC Small Development Project, in Bumthang wass inaugurated 1.6 lakhs per household, and road was blacktopped under Third phase, funding. by the His Excellency the people should take ownership the Government of India's Prime Minister. In his address and try to do whatever small prime minister said that the scale maintenance possible blacktopping works costed Nu. from their side.
The 18.22 km of Yangner India's Project Tied Assistance GC road was blacktopped funding. under the Government of Bridge Launched Trashigang Regional Office launched the 90 feet bailey bridge over the Langphugang under Kangpar Gewog. The bridge was lauched by the staff of the regional office as a hands-on training program for its staffs.
Quaterly Newsletter Ministry of Works and Human Settlement 7 དཔལ་辡ན་འ宲ུག་ག筴ང⼍ ཞཞབས་ཏོག་ལྷ་ཁག ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN MINISTRY OF WORKS AND HUMAN SETTLEMENT “Construction Industry: Solution Through Innovation and Improved Technology” thimphu: bhutan QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 6: Issue 1 www.mowhs.gov.bt July– Sept 2017
Denchukha Bridge
ous search and rescue was link connecting the anchorage and the initiated three bodies could cable broke off injuring two laborers. not be retrieved. Although Fortunately, there were no fatalities and the exact cause could not serious injuries. Following the incident, be confirmed, the workers a team lead by chief engineer, bridge di- suspected that a cable may vision visited the site to verify the cause. have snapped leading to the The team did not find any errors made by catastrophe. BSB erection team. All due process had On 13 July Lyonpo vis- been followed. The connector links were ited the site. not subjected to any additional loads; After the collapse of in fact, the cables were only loaded up the bridge certain parts to 4 MT whereas it should take loads as could not be reused. The many as 19 MT. The failure was attribut- requirement of additional ed to faulty joints within the connector bridge parts were placed link. The sections were squarely welded on 3 August 2016 to the without provisions of any grooves. In Garden Reach Shipbuilders total 80 nos of female connector links and Engineers (GRSE), (BSB27) and 4 nos of rod suspender No. Kolkata, India, which is 2 (BSB 24) needed to be replaced by the the only certified and au- manufacturer. thorized dealer of bailey The consignment of replacement was suspension bridges in India. received on 10 June 2017. The works re- All the required parts ar- sumed on 14 June 2017 and completed rived on 15 March 2017. on 25 June 2017. continued from pg. 6… ever did During the relaunching works which The overall cost of the is Nu.2.825 not significantly affect the overall quantity began on 27 April 2017, one connector million. and cost of the project. Nonetheless, the contractor failed to deliver the contract within its time period. The work was eventually completed in 15 June 2015. After the completion of the sub-struc- ture works, DoR awarded the super- structure launching works to M/s Rama Engineering, Kolkata for Nu 2.825 million through limited bidding on 7 October 2015. The work started in mid-April 2016. When the firm had completed erection of towers and launching of the bridge parts began from both the ends misfortune struck the launching works. On 11th July, 2016, the bridge collapsed. One worker was killed at the spot and one was critically injured. Besides, 7 workers were swept by the river. Even after rigor-
Quaterly Newsletter Ministry of Works and Human Settlement 8 དཔལ་辡ན་འ宲ུག་ག筴ང⼍ ཞཞབས་ཏོག་ལྷ་ཁག ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN MINISTRY OF WORKS AND HUMAN SETTLEMENT “Construction Industry: Solution Through Innovation and Improved Technology” thimphu: bhutan QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 6: Issue 1 www.mowhs.gov.bt July– Sept 2017
Gasa Dzongkhag Road Visit 18-19 September, 2017 Hon’ble Lyonpo visited the ogoing Gasa Dzongkhag road improvement works and met with the contractors to ensure its completion on time with required quality. use of tarpaulin the temperature remains The third contractor, Tshering reasonably stable. The regional office and Samdrup Construction, who is carry- site engineers were comfortable that the ing out the work from Goenteygang to works will be completed within time. Baychu (km 56.7 – km 66.7) had made Exactly two months had elapsed on the considerable progress. The works were day of discussion since the Biky company under full swing: the material production was awarded 10.2 km of basecourse and was progressing and sufficient number bitumen sealing works. Site engineers of laborers were seen doing permanent reported that there had been virtually works. Without any adverse weather no activity at site in the past two months. conditions both the contractor and site The contractor informed that supplier engineers were confident that the works On 18th September Hon’ble Lyonpo met of the crushing plant failed to make the will be completed on time. with the three contractors of Hi-Tech, Biky delivery as agreed and lost time in ar- About 3 km of road stretch from and Tshering Samdrup, who are carrying ranging the supply from another firm. Wokuna till Rimchu was found in very out the ongoing Gasa dzongkhag road He informed that he has put 8 laborers poor condition. The area was marshy and improvement works, together with the site at site to build camps and an excavator water-clogged. Since it required much engineers in Punakha. The following day to excavate materials. The contractor more intervention than just resurfacing, Lyonpo visited their sites. Lyonpo empha- committed to complete the works as the area was not included in the contract sized that any delay could severely impact per the milestone contract and contract package and was kept on hold for obser- the progress because Gasa dzongkhag documents. But the site engineers seemed vation. The regional office was asked to has very few practical working months apprehensive about his commitment on install road signage informing that the compared to other dzongkhags. Lyonpo completing the work on time. stretch is under observation. reiterated the importance of completing the work packages within the 2017-18 financial year itself. Hi-Tech company is awarded two packages. The company has achieved 13.6 km of basecourse out of 16.2 km and completed the L-drain construction of 14.15 km. The firm has yet to start the asphalt concreting. The firm informed that with favorable weather conditions they will complete the asphalt concreting within a month or so. But, they informed that they were going to transport the asphalt from their Tekizampa plant. The site engineers and the manager informed that the distance seems long, but with the
Quaterly Newsletter Ministry of Works and Human Settlement 9 དཔལ་辡ན་འ宲ུག་ག筴ང⼍ ཞཞབས་ཏོག་ལྷ་ཁག ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN MINISTRY OF WORKS AND HUMAN SETTLEMENT “Construction Industry: Solution Through Innovation and Improved Technology” thimphu: bhutan QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 6: Issue 1 www.mowhs.gov.bt July– Sept 2017
APA 2017-18 signed continued from pg. 1…of quality in- only about 20 km is posing some serious he never failed to remind people that it frastructure as major challenges for the problem. But nonetheless, he said, the was now their responsibility to further ministry. fact cannot be denied that little more develop their gewog. In his remarks, His Excellency the could be done to ease the desperation With rapid development prime minis- prime minister thanked the government of our commuters. ter said that people want to develop their agencies for supporting the execution of Lyonchen commented that yearly the land and construct houses as per their Government Performance Management number of vehicles is increasing; and any wish. The traditional architectural designs System. Prime minister informed how delay in the upgradation works on such in buildings, both in towns and villages pleased he was to be able to meet two critical highway is only going to double alike, have been preserved and promoted important government agencies, works the challenges such projects will face in because of the concerted efforts taken ministry and Thimphu Thromde, together. future. Looking back when the work by the ministry. “It is because of these For MoWHS, he said, it was critical time started from the Dochula to Lobeysa it uniqueness that there is vibrant tourism of the year with the onset of the monsoon. created lot of problems for the contrac- growth in the country.”, Lyonchen said. Last year, the monsoon wreaked havoc in tors and commuters alike, Lyonchen said. The prime minister informed that he different parts of the country, Lyonchen Considering these experiences, it was was very well aware of the challenges said; in Sarpang entire town was wiped it was very faced by the Thromde office. Many of the out by the swelling river; in others, entire opportune time basic thromde infrastructures like roads road stretches were washed out, and to have initiated were constructed before with substandard still in others bridges were irreparably the upgradation quality and despite repeated maintenance damaged by the incessant downpour. works. it is bound to get damaged. Even after Accompanying His Majesty in these af- acknowledging the problem, the govern- fected areas, Lyonchen said, he personally very opportune time to have initiated ment will not be in a position to allocate stands witness to the dedication, the hard the upgradation works. sufficient budget to completely restore work, the commitment the ministry’s en- With such huge national project, the these roads owing to limited budget and gineers and other have put, in the hope prime minister said what is more import- competing priorities. Lyonchen shared of bringing back the life of our people ant is to assure the quality of the work that there are only about 72000 registered to normalcy, and in the hope of serving and leave lasting impression in the mind people in Thimphu but about 100000 the nation. of our youths. residents. It will always be a challenge Prime minister then referred to the Referring to another important proj- to meet the demands of the growing poor condition of road between Tsangkha ect, the blacktopping of the gewog center population. Despite of the challenges and Trongsa, about 20 km in stretch, for roads, prime minster said that 203 gewogs Lyonchen said that Thromde have been which ministry is barraged by public and have gewog center roads with the ex- performing reasonably well. media criticism. The difficulty commut- ception of Soe and Lingzhi. The black- Dasho Secretary in his closing remarks ers face on this stretch warrants such topping of some 67 gewog center roads said that 2017-18 FY being the last year criticisms. But, what some fail to con- has been completed with many more to of the 11th plan and the government’s ceive is that given the sheer magnitude be completed by the end of December. tenure, the activities included in the of upgradation work carried out on 300 He said that whenever he visits a gewog 2017-18 FY plan will bring all the 11th km road stretch at the same time, which with blacktopped road he felt like he was plan activities to a meaningful end. is of the scale never carried out before, entering into a developed gewog. He said
Quaterly Newsletter Ministry of Works and Human Settlement 10 PICTURE STORY
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Policy and Planning Division Ministry of Works and Human Settlement Thimphu: Bhutan
www.mowhs.gov.bt Quaterly Newsletter 11