The Structure Plan has been appropriately described as a skeleton on which the parts of the city can be hung, much as the human body is held together. The nervous system and the circulatory system fit into this system too. This skeleton is the roads and a few open areas that can also accommodate the pipes and cables that carry utilities. The main trunk services like public transport, the main sewerage drain, electricity and the telecom conduits will run through an underground channel along the river, as part of the envisioned urban corridor. The design of this channel is more critical than the expressway. It will have to have an easy access, but not be a haven for rodents. Most likely a sand filled channel would be most appropriate.

Storm drains will integrate with the river. The sewerage system requires its own trunk drain along the river, which must be done in such a manner that the pipe is not exposed. Low-density areas will most likely be best served by septic tanks. Raw sewerage must never be dumped into the sacred river.

Each utility system has its own rationale regarding the network, but all have to integrate into the same urban system: storm drains, roads, street lights, water supply, telecommunications, and sewerage system will all have to be accommodated, in consultation with the concerned agencies.

It is important that the networks for all of these skeletal utilities are planned in a system of main corridor, limbs and fingers, to use the human body analogy once more. There is a natural hierarchy in the systems.

The main features all need an underground “trench” which can be easily opened. In the smaller “fingers” this may be a simple dug trench filled with sand, with flowering bushes planted along side. There must be an Underground Utility Committee, made up of the representatives of all the concerned utilities providers, who coordinate the design and location of the “trench” and jointly decide when which “trench” will be opened for major works.


The Clock Tower Square: Component of the Public Domain

2.21 SHELTER SYSTEMS

Housing is in shortage in the capital and must be addressed. With the population estimated to reach about one hundred and fifty thousand people by the year 2027, this shortage will start to grow geometrically.

The solution to the housing shortage lies as much in the financial mechanisms we evolve and in the institutional modalities, as it does in the physical plans we prepare. It is important that we facilitate the private sector to become active in the provision of housing, in addition to the public sector agencies now involved. Within the existing banking system a development finance mechanism can be created whereby the Pension Fund and the Insurance Corporation of Bhutan provide earmarked funds to be given on short term loan to registered “urban housing developers” who use these funds to build housing units. The idea is to get small and medium sized builders into the shelter provision business, which would also provide employment in the construction industry. We also need to enhance the building skills and crafts in this sector, which can be one of the largest employers of vocationally trained Bhutanese youth. Other long-term loan schemes can be evolved for the buyers of housing units.

We must further facilitate this process by assisting in the access to land for Group Housing, private sector projects. Where we are proposing land pooling and Local Area Plans we must designate plots for lower middle class group units, by providing for them in the layouts. We must also introduce row houses as a housing typology for higher density locations.

Traditional Dwellings Add Unique Character to the City

We should also not rule out the possibility of a limited number of high rise, “lift” schemes on large plots of land where adequate parking and open space can be provided. Other considerations for high-rise schemes are earthquake resistant structural designs and fire safety provisions. But these issues can be addressed and such schemes could be considered (say one scheme in every one square kilometer, on plots of at least three acres, with a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 2.0). These should also be for larger units, with underground parking.

It is important that we address the issue of shelter for the lower income groups. There is a hidden population in the city of Thimphu, which we must bring out into the open, and address as a public policy and planning issue. A large number of these ‘workers’ are of foreign origin and have low skill and education levels. They presently reside in illegal and unhygienic ‘Bagos’ at various locations in the city. These will grow at a much faster rate than the better off segments of the society as the city grows, if the scenarios in other societies are an indicator of the future. One manner to address this issue is to formalize the occupations of these people making it mandatory to register domestic and construction workers, to pay reasonable and minimum wages, and to see that these people have adequate housing. There should be a strategy to train up Bhutanese into these occupations, making them “vocations” with a degree of dignity and a real potential for income generation. If we are to each individually try to benefit by paying low wages to a disorganized sector of the economy we will see that sector grows in a chaotic and unhealthy manner. This is a problem of Urban Planning as well of planning in other sectors. We cannot leave this problem to fate.
From an Urban Design point of view, this is the area that the public sector should be focusing its limited skills on, which the private sector should be facilitating in the middle and upper income groups.

In every Local Area Plan of the city a small high-density village of low-income units should be constructed for domestic servants who will work in the area. Another strategy would be to require each detached bungalow to provide a “servant’s quarter” within their own compound. But these may not be inhabited by the household’s own servants in the long run. Another strategy for Bhutanese citizens would be to layout Sit and Services schemes of not more than fifty houses each where basic services (storm drains, paved foot paths, street lights, water, sewerage and electricity) and the inhabitants would buy these little plots and construct their own modest shelters. Plots could be as small as five hundred square feet each and party walls would be allowed. It may also be possible to provide the plinths and party walls in some schemes. Still another approach would be to upgrade the existing ‘Bagos’ and to register the inhabitants who would then be ‘rented’ the units, to stop more infiltration.

Any public policy and related programme must include components on regulation of foreign labour, training Bhutanese labour to take over these occupations, upgrading the skills and work conditions of these occupations to bring the dignity that these vocations deserve and to provide a range of housing options to these people. This is a policy area that cannot wait!