January 31, 2010: Even years after the Thimphu Structure Plan has been approved by the government, the local plan development at Taba is yet to take off. And if landowners are stubborn as they are now, development of Taba into a satellite town may take even longer.

In the Thimphu Structure Plan, local area plans for 12 areas in Thimphu comprising Serbithang, Babesa, Semthokha, Lungtenphu, Changbangtog, Changzamtok, Hejo, Samteling, Jungshina, Langjophakha, Taba and Dechencholing were prepared.           

“The agreements from the public for the local planning are very necessary for the government. In Dechencholing 98% agreement was obtained and in Changbangtog 83% and only 50 to 65% has agreed in Taba and Jungshina area for local planning,” said Geley Norbu, chief urban planner, Thimphu City Corporation (TCC). “And for this reason the government is unable to implement the development.”

Local area plans are used for implementation on the ground. When the plan was prepared, a new concept was also brought along - land pooling. In land pooling both the government and the land owners contribute to the construction. And this has been the bottleneck here for Taba.

The main logic behind introducing such a practice was because the government did not have enough resources to put into developing infrastructure. Therefore, to share the burden, the government wanted the landowners as equal stakeholders in the development to contribute in the form of land.

In land pooling system every land owner contributes for the benefit of the community. And those who own a bigger plot has to contribute a larger chunk of their land compared to those who own less land. For that reason the owners are not agreeing on contributing more to the government.

The contribution made by the landowners will be used for the provision of road, sewage, water plan, street lighting, community school, foot path, sanitation, etc that would only benefit the public. 

“People located above Nima Higher Secondary School already have the road access and those who owns land below the school has to face the main problem of not having the agreement from those who has access to road,”  said Tenzin, a landlord in Taba.

He added that he is ready to contribute his share of land to the government but looking at the situation now, with some landlords not willing to contribute, time is being wasted. And in the mean time they lose out the basic amenities like road and sewerage, he said.

However, development works are expected to start.

“The formation cutting in Taba (rough road) will be put into action and we will try to complete it by June this year or if not we will finish it by next year,” said Geley Norbu.

Meanwhile, six local area plans are under implementation, in Babesa, Semtokha, Lungtenphu, Changbangtog, Langjophakha, and Dechencholing under different schemes.

“We have selected these six places in Thimphu to begin with, because we have maximum agreement and contributions from these land owners whereas other areas especially Taba and Jungshina do not have much agreement,” said the Chief Urban Planner.

The government decided the Urban Development Planning in 1999. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank has offered a loan of US$ 12 million for urban planning and development in Thimphu.

The Thimphu Structure Plan started the urban boundary construction approved by the Cabinet Secretariat in 2003 from Babesa till Changtagang, after thorough public consultations.