주방글라데시 대한민국 대사관

Bhutan News

17 September 2010

    The department of road’s chief engineer, Tshering Wangdi, was the other official. The officials on reaching New Delhi on September 3, handed over a cheque of Nu 5M to the director (north), ministry of external affairs, India, during a brief informal meeting. The money will go to the prime minister’s relief fund prior to delivery to the allocated area.

    A press release from the department fo disaster management stated the visit was also intended to “earn exposures” in containing and managing such large scale disasters.  They visited the affected areas and met with local government officials and expressed the government’s solidarity for the catastrophe and misfortune and conveyed their deepest condolense for loss of lives and properties.

    A mudslide triggered by a cloudburst hit Leh, the capital of Ladakh on August 5. According to Indian government statistics, at least 185 people, including 13 Nepali workers and six foreign tourists, died in the disaster, and more than 500 people sustained injuries. Approximately 10,000 people in 34 villages were affected and around 1,400 hectares of farmland was damaged in the calamity.

    According to government estimates of the more than 3,000 villages in the country, an estimated 353 villages in 64 gewogs in 17 dzongkhags still do not have access to the cellular network. Connecting all unconnected villages by the set deadline will be done by the two cellular companies in the country, Tashi InfoComm limited (TICL) and Bhutan Telecom limited, on a 70-30 cost-sharing basis with the government. Yesterday, TICL signed an agreement with the Bhutan infocomm and media authority (BICMA) to connect 202 villages in 34 gewogs of seven dzongkhags. The cost of connecting these areas is Nu 101.67M, of which the government will provide a subsidy of Nu 71.2M, and the rest will be borne by TICL.

    BICMA officials explained that both TICL and BTL had submitted bids to undertake the connecting villages project, and TICL won the bid to connect villages in seven dzongkhags. This is the second phase of the universal service programme, which in the earlier phase connected 35 unconnected gewogs to the cellular network at a subsidised cost of Nu 188M. The subsidy for the two cellular companies was around 55 to 60 percent in the first phase that will be completed by the end of this year. However, Lunana gewog, along the northern frontiers, is expected to be connected only by next year, according to BICMA officials.

    “The subsidy is more in the second phase, because transportation costs will be much higher to connect remote villages,” explained BICMA’s telecommuncation division head, Wangay Dorji. The fund for the universal service programme is being drawn from the license fee collected from the cellular operators. In 2007, the Tashi group bid Nu 777M to become the second cellular operator for a period of 15 years. The Tashi group had to deposit 25 percent of the license fee after winning the bid and pay the remaining fee over the next 15 years. “After Tashi group won the bid, we applied the same conditions to Bhutan Telecom as well in terms of license fees,” said Wangay Dorji.

    The executive director of TICL, Tashi Tshering, said that the work will generally involve building base stations and transmission links. “The main challenge will be the remoteness of the villages, most of which are at least a day’s walk from the road head,” he said. “Most of these places also don’t have electricity or the ready cash to buy cellular phones that are taxed by the government.” (Kuensel)

[ END ]