Bhutan Second Rural Access Project

closed

The objective for the Second Rural Access Project is for residents of beneficiary Dzongkhags to utilize improved rural transport infrastructure and services. The target beneficiaries are about 12,000 rural residents in several geogs (blocks of villages) of Wangdue, Dagana, and Pemagtsel Dzongkhags, which have the highest demand for access in Bhutan. The dzongkhags and geogs were selected taking into account: (i) the development objectives set out in the Ninth Five-Year Development Plan; (ii) the demand for access in the area and the road prioritization; (iii) the exclusion of the selected geogs from projects supported by other donors; (iv) the cost-effectiveness of the individual road; and (v) the detailed geotechnical survey of the individual roads. The project includes 2 components: 1) The road access component which will include the following: (a) construction of new feeder roads of approximately 65 km length in total; (b) upgrading of about 24 km of existing roads to all-season, feeder road standards; (c) piloting low-cost sealing of feeder roads and performance based maintenance mechanisms using the national work force and/or community involvement or petty contracting; and (d) construction/upgrading of 8 bridges with a total approximate length of 116 meters; and 2) The capacity development and implementation support component which will comprise the following: (a) human resource development and training; (b) technical assistance to pilot performance-based maintenance mechanisms; (c) project implementation support for the Project Coordinating Unit (PCU) in Thimphu and the three Project Management Units (PMUs) at project sites; (d) socio-economic impact monitoring study; and (e) HIV/AIDS awareness of construction workers through the nation-wide program run by the Ministry of Health.