3.1 THE EXISTING TOWN

The existence of Gelephu, one of the most potential industrial and commercial towns of Southern Bhutan, dates back to late sixties when the primitive settlement was shifted from the banks of Mao Chhu and re-established in the present bazaar area. It is located at about 30 kms to the east of Sarpang, the Dzongkhag headquarters. Though, Sarpang is the administrative center for the Dzongkhag, Gelephu due to various factors, has prospered and developed as a market town serving the hinterland. The geographical setting of the town with relatively flat terrain, close proximity and well established connectivity with India, and its location as a nodal connection for the central parts of Bhutan makes the place one of the preferred locations for future development. It is because of these advantages that the Gelephu region has already attracted strategic development proposals initiated by the Royal Government including an industrial estate, a rail head and an international airport. It also enjoys His Holiness Je Khenpo’s prophecy of performing meditation and proposal for building a gigantic stupa at Fulahari, in the vicinity of the town. Thus with such diverse roles to play, efficient urban planning is the need of the hour and equally challenging to streamline its future growth aspects.

Before proceeding with a description of the planning of the town, it is important to comprehensively list down the existing data sequentially in the form of layers one above the other. These layers contain an exhaustive database under each of them ranging from climate, demography, land use, existing facilities and many others. These layers analyzed individually, and when overlapped together, give rise to certain thoughts and concepts which are critical for drawing up of the structure plan. The factual nature of these layers is always under question and its authenticity primarily lies with the various sectors and agencies involved in urban administration. Committed and helpful city managers have provided us with the data, as have sectoral departments of the RGoB. Constant discussions and reviews with the city managers have helped us in filtering and increasing the authenticity of the ‘Existing Scenario’ document in the chapter ahead.

3.1.1 Physical Setting

The town of Gelephu is one of the very few towns in Bhutan situated on a flat terrain. It is where the Great Himalayas meet the plains that Gelephu stands today along the banks of Mao Chhu. This relatively young river has a history of often changing its course, resulting in its banks getting wider and shallower day by day, bringing in huge amounts of silt deposits. Because of this the town faces great risks of floods and in the past the town has experienced flooding many times. In fact flooding is a common phenomenon in some parts of the town. The town is located at 26:50 0 N Latitude and 90:30 0 E Longitude with an average altitude level of 375 M above mean sea level. While the Mao Chhu forms the eastern edge of the town limit,

the Setikhare Chhu, the first irrigation channel and the vehicular corridor connecting Gelephu and Sarpang, forms the northern, western and southern edges respectively.

The existing spatial structure of the town, though organic by nature, is more or less based on an irregular grid-iron pattern of streets, dividing the core and its surroundings into blocks. The city core being dense with optimum utilization of available spaces in its limit and the centre of commercial and residential development, have forced the institutions out on the northern side of the commercial core. This includes the dungkhag administration, schools, hospital, royal guest house and few other offices combining to form an institutional core. The north-west side of the commercial core holds small and medium scale industrial developments like the Army Welfare Project and Lhaki Wood Industries. Thus, the commercial core, the institutional core and the industrial belt have allowed possible expansion of the town further north along the Trongsa Highway up to Setikhare Chhu. Particularly, these areas with lower land prices are primarily dominated by low rise, low density development with land uses such as arcanut farms set in between. Lack of internal roads has also limited the potential development in this zone.

Though the existing Municipal limit confines only to the present town core area, the extended Municipal limit (hereafter referred as to Gelephu Municipal Limit) includes a few other settlements confined within the boundary created by the first irrigation canal, Setikhare Chhu, Mao Chhu and the Gelephu-Sarpang corridor.