| The
urban development process began in 1961 when the planned
economic development was launched in the form of first
five year plan. The erstwhile Bhutan Engineering Services
was responsible for construction of buildings to accommodate
the civil servants. This organization continued to serve
the public construction functions in a new name called
"Public Works Department".
In
1974 a committee was appointed to guide urban development
and it was called "Central Town Planning Committee"
(CTPC) consisting of all ministers and senior civil
servants as members.
In
1984, the CTPC was converted into "National Urban
Development Corporation" (NUDC).
In
1989 the NUDC was renamed as the Department of Works
and Housing by merging the non-road functions of the
PWD.
In
1993 the Departments of Road and Works & Housing
were merged and renamed the Public Works Division (PWD).
The new PWD was then transferred to the Ministry of
Communications.
1999
the roads and other functions were segregated and the
Department of Urban Development and Housing (DUDH) was
formed. The mandate of DUDH is to focus on urban development
as the number of urban centers is rapidly increasing
and urban problems like housing, infrastructure provision
and municipal management issues are emerging, which
need to be addressed comprehensively and efficiently.
There
are 28 declared urban centers and 26 satellite towns.
The larger towns of Thimphu and Phuntsholing have City
Corporations while other towns have municipalities under
the chairmanship of respective Dzongdags. Thimphu is
an autonomous municipal corporation whereas Phuntsholing
is yet to be granted municipal charter. All other municipalities
are called municipal corporations but function under
the engineering section of Dzongkhag administration.
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