3.5.6 Other Amenities and Services

Bhutan Power Corporation (Supply and Maintenance Division)

Bhutan Power Corporation’s maintenance and supply division is located near the hospital campus. The total staff including technical, clerical and support staff is about 22 persons. Future proposals include laying of underground cables inside the municipal limits. There is a requirement for additional staff quarters, which can be built within the existing campus.

Bhutan Telecom

The Bhutan Telecom office is located along Phendey Lam. The total staff including technical, clerical and support staff is about 26 persons. Apart from regular telephone service it provides internet and wireless phone service in Gelephu. Future proposals include laying of under ground cables in Lekithang, Pemathang and Setikhare areas and providing Mobile Phone service in the region.

Bhutan Post

The Bhutan Post Office is located at the junction of Gaden Lam and Phendey Lam opposite the Bhutan Telecom Office. The total staff strength is about 17 persons, while the various services offered are letter mail, money orders, passenger transportation, e-post, PCO, POC, parcel, vending of stamps and money transfers. The coverage area of the post office is Gelephu dungkhag. Future proposals include construction of a three storey building with separate finance division.

Vegetable and Meat Market

Located adjacent to the cinema hall, the weekly market takes place in vegetable and meat market sheds. There are about 20 vegetable open sheds and 6 meat enclosed sheds in the market yard. The Gelephu Municipal Corporation is responsible for the construction and maintenance of these market sheds.

Food Corporation of Bhutan

The Food Corporation of Bhutan has its office cum bulk storage yard located adjacent to the Dungkhag Administration campus in the Kuenphen Lam. The auction yard of the Food Corporation of Bhutan is located near the Vegetable Market area. The existing storage capacity of the bulk yard is about 627 metric tons and of auction yard is about 550 metric tons. The total staff strength of the department is about 20 permanent and 10 temporary persons. The Food Corporation of Bhutan in Gelephu serves the surrounding six Dzongkhags and 25 fair price shops in the region, including one in Gelephu. One of the difficulties faced by the department is absence of a cold-storage facility. Future proposals include establishing new fair price shops in the region and a super market in Gelephu.

Fair Price Shop

A fair price shop is located in the Jangchub Lam. The supplies for the shop are received from the Food Corporation of Bhutan.

Road Safety and Transport Authority

The Road Safety and Transport Authority office is located near the foot ball ground on the Phendey Lam. The campus has a dedicated bus parking area adjacent to the Bhutan Telecom Campus, which used to function as the bus stand of Gelephu. But for security reasons the bus stand has been now shifted to the ground behind the PWD workshops near the Indo-Bhutan boundary. This regional office serves six dzongkhags and is primarily responsible for vehicle registration and road transportation. Buses are available from the bus stand plying towards Thimphu, Wangdue, Tsirang, Sarpang and Trongsa. The bus services across the border have been temporarily stopped. Future proposals include construction of a bus terminal with facilities like bus sheds, booking counters, canteen ,toilets and taxi parking for which about four acres of land is required.

Royal and Army Guest House

The Royal Guest House located near the municipal office along the Gelephu-Trongsa highway serves as an official guest house for government employees, bureaucrats and dignitaries. It is served by a care-taker whose quarters are located on the backside of the guest house. The Army Guest House, located adjacent to Royal Guest House, serves the army personnel.

Financial Institutions

Both, the Bank of Bhutan and the Bhutan National Bank have their branches established in Gelephu. While the Bank of Bhutan has its branch office in Phendey Lam the Bhutan National Bank’s branch is located in Losal Lam. Apart from these financial institutions the Royal Insurance Corporation of Bhutan and Bhutan Chamber of Commerce also have their branches established in Gelephu town.

Fuel Stations

The two fuel stations in Gelephu are the Bhutan Oil Distributors (Tashi Petroleums) and the Druk Fuel Station located on the Gelephu-Sarpang road and near the Bhutan Power Corporation switch yard respectively. The Bhutan Oil Distributors takes care of the LPG cylinder supply for the town.

Public Toilets and Parking facilities

Public toilets and truck parking facilities are provided by the Municipal Corporation near the existing market yard. A new taxi stand is under development near the Losal Cinema.

It is worth mentioning the existence of an informal disaster management team set-up, headed and manned by senior officials and town residents to decide upon the action plans during the time of any national calamity and security problems.

3.5.7 Over-all Characteristics of existing Amenities and Facilities distribution within the Town

The existing amenities and facilities were created in an ad-hoc manner. There was little coordination between service sectors, without concerned for regional services hierarchies and referral systems.

The town of Gelephu has gradually evolved from a small agglomeration of population in the current town core area, to one covering an area of approximately six square kilometers with a population close to 12,000. Initially the majority of the population residing in the Gelephu town were either farming their lands surrounding the town or in government service. Hence, most of the land within the old municipal limit was under Government ownership. The recent extension of the town boundaries has altered this proportion significantly. The inclusion of outer areas, primarily under private ownership, altered the earlier proportion of land ownership patterns within the town.

Till recently, most of the development within Gelephu town was concentrated within the town core area. This has led to a scenario where there is an intense concentration of facilities (even of the highest order,) in a limited area of the town which, exceeds in most cases, the ideal ratio of facilities to population adopted for the allocation of facilities in planning exercises.

On the other hand the recent amenities and facilities development in the town, like the new high school, has almost negated the possibility of any planned development. This has again necessitated ad-hoc allocation of facilities, within the town’s landscape. This has created a situation where, there are facilities of all possible hierarchies, scattered in different parts of the town, without any convergences of services correlation between them. These are key issues, which would need to be addressed to achieve a holistic strategy of development for the town.

The Structure Plan envisions a number of inter-linked Urban Villages, with various areas hosting various services and amenities giving each Urban Village a unique character. In the Structure Plan for Gelephu new services and amenities are to be located in specific areas. This will assure accessibility to amenities by all of the town’s citizens.

It is important that the Ministry of Works and Human Settlement communicates with and educates the concerned service providers, so that their infrastructure investments further strengthen the plan, making the town more efficient, hygienic and healthy.