Research Paper: Sherubtse College

Brief Background

Kanglung Gewog lies on the lateral route of Trashigang- Samdrup Jongkhar Highway and it is located 22 kms away from Trashigang Dzongkhag. The Kanglung Geog has an area of 63.30 sq. km and is located in the North of Khaling, North-East of Uzorong, South-West of Samkhar and has a border with Dremitse Geog of Mongar Dzongkhag. The Geog has a temperate climate with warm summer and cold winter. Geog landscape is mostly mountainous terrain; however, proper Kanglung is in gentle slope. The soil is acidic in nature. The highest altitude recorded in the Gewog is 3700 metres approximately and lowest altitude recorded is 550 metres approximately above the sea level. The main cash crop in the Gewog is potato and 80% of the farmers cultivate potatoes. The rest 20% cultivate other crops for the household purposes to meet their daily living.

Kanglung Geog has 8 Major Villages called Chewog, which further sub-divided into minor villages with minimum households of 1 to 2 and goes up to the maximum of 20 to 30 households. The people of this Geog speak Tshangla (Sharchop).

The Gewog has also a good business opportunity in future and presently the Gewog itself have 59 grocery shops and 10 restaurants benefitting the public in obtaining necessary food items. The Gewog is fully electrified by June 2010, and none of the village is left without electricity. In the field of Information and Communication, almost all the villages are connected with telephone and mobile services. The Gewog has one Post office where it delivers postal services to the public. The Gewog is access to the media with the establishment of Kuensel Regional Office in 2006. The Gewog has one TV subscriber connecting most of the villages by providing daily news and updating information to the public.

  

Aims and Objectives

The main objective of project is to find out the benefit of road construction between Kanglung BHU and Pangthang village. By connecting all unconnected habitations in the rural areas through construction of all-weather roads with necessary culverts and cross-drainage structures, in a manner that will provide the most economic and efficient connectivity thus promoting access to economic and social infrastructure as well as assist the habitants in crossing the Poverty Line.

Specific objectives

·     Promotion and preservation of nature while construction is underway.

·     Provide alternative income source by value addition by construction of road.

·     Socio-economic impact on the lives of the rural people as a result of enhanced rural connectivity provided and also to find out the changes/improvements brought about in rural sector.

Statement of the Purpose

The purpose of the Road and Driveway Ordinance is to establish procedures and standards for constructing roads and driveways within the Kanglung BHU and to supplement farm road standards leading towards Pangthang Village.

Description of Project

Environmentally sound forest road construction techniques as holistic, interdisciplinary approaches that take into account the need for landscape and wildlife considerations should replace purely technology-oriented solutions and are to be guided by the following principal considerations:

·         Any disturbance to the landscape is to be kept to the absolute minimum;

·         Environmentally sound correction of poorly located and designed roads at a later stage is virtually impossible;

·         Reckless and incompetent construction work may destroy the beneficial effects of even the most carefully selected road location (layout, alignment);

·         Undesired effects and scars inflicted on the landscape can seldom be remedied at a later stage and only at much higher costs.

Equal attention is to be paid to the three phases in road construction projects namely, planning and design, construction operation, and integration which comprises bioengineering as well as landscaping measures. All operations undertaken are guided by the consideration that unless the forest is left in a condition that will permit the attainment of a desired future condition, sustainability cannot be assured.

Project Log Frame

Log frame is a tool for summarizing the key features of a project design at the time of project identification (what is it?) during definition (what should we do?) and appraisal (should we do it?). It is an up-front planner which provides the Project Team with essential planning information for the development of project plans.

For carrying out the quick impact assessment of the road construction between Kanglung BHU and Pangthang village. The methodology, as decided, adopted for the present study is to carry out two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) in each of the two connected habitations - one with people of Kanglung and one group with people of Pangthang. The FGDs in each habitation include one for the male and the other for the female participants.

Besides the FGDs, interviews with the village functionaries or elder group etc will be also conducted and Case Studies in each village will be carried out.

Parameters

·         Agricultural Production

·         Employment

·         Industry

·         Health

·         Education

·         Social Aspects

·         Transportation

·         Urbanization, and

·         Poverty Alleviation

Project implementation plan

The Kanglung BHU-Pangthang Road Implementation Plan will be updated following additional public consultation. The plan will be submitted to our module tutor and accordingly the decision will be taken.

To complement the implementation plan, design guidance for road within the area will be developed. Accordingly guidance will be made up for public realm strategy

The guidance produced will ensure that any future developers in this area achieve the high design standards for road construction. They include aspects of highway design, landscape, community safety, development block and street layout, connectivity, parking, sustainable drainage, accessibility, materials and local distinctiveness. There is freedom to develop designs at the planning application stage - but they set down some important parameters about position, height, fronts and backs, and entrances. The codes are based on a framework that shows how the different regeneration projects will come together to create a sustainable new road connecting two places.

 Predicted impacts and analysis

There are two general categories of species or species groups showing negative effects of roads on animal abundance: species that are vulnerable to traffic disturbances (noise, lights, pollution, traffic motion) and species that are vulnerable to road mortality. Vulnerability to traffic disturbance likely explains many of the bird responses and some of the mid- and large-sized mammal responses. Traffic noise seems to be a problem for communication among songbirds, possibly leading to low abundances near roads, and direct observations and large mammals have behavioral avoidance of roads for some species.

Vulnerability to road mortality likely explains most of the amphibian and reptile responses, as well as some of the mid-sized and large mammal responses. Several factors combine to make a species vulnerable to road mortality. Species that are either attracted to roads or do not avoid roads, and that show low car avoidance (e.g., slow-moving species) are particularly vulnerable. This combination is most likely responsible for the frequent negative effects of roads and traffic on abundances of amphibians and reptiles. For example, some snakes use the road surface for thermoregulation, some turtles lay their eggs in gravel roads or road shoulders. Therefore, these animals are likely to enter the road surface and, in combination with their need for seasonal migrations between breeding and overwintering sites, as well as their slow movement across the road, experience very high mortality rates.

The three dominant effects of roads on the environment are alteration of runoff from forested watersheds, mass wasting and surface erosion. Sedimentation of streams is particularly serious in upland areas. Sedimentation can also shorten the life of reservoirs and water supply systems relying on forests for quality water for domestic and industrial uses. Peak discharges may be altered in basins following forest road construction. Forest roads complicate the hydrology in harvested watershed). In watersheds with high infiltration capacity and where hill slope flow is dominantly subsurface, roads have the potential to increase surface runoff and intercept subsurface flow. Changing the hydrologic properties of a watershed will often change the upland stream sedimentation processes and adversely impact downstream structures such as reservoirs, bridges, and other features in the stream’s flood plain.

In steep terrain, where the climate may lead to saturated road prisms, slope stability failures may lead to greater sedimentation in streams than surface erosion. In many cases, the sediment particle sizes from stability failures may be much larger than from surface erosion, and may include large rocks and boulders in excess of a meter diameter.

The large number of trees and plant will be uprooted and it will have larger effect on functioning of ecosystem in particular.

Environmental management plan

·         Construction procedures and location of the construction site.

·         Start date and duration of the procedure.

·         Materials, equipment and labor to be used.

·         How materials, equipment and labor would be moved to and from the site as well as on site during construction.

·         Storage, removal and subsequent handling of all materials, excess materials and waste materials of the procedure.

·         Emergency procedures in case of any reasonably potential accident / incident which could occur during the procedure.

·         Site clearing

·         Site layout and establishment

·         Hazardous substances

·         Cement and concrete batching (for each operation)

·         Traffic accommodation

·         Solid waste control system

·         Wastewater control system

·         Erosion remediation and stabilization

·         Bridge demolition and construction

·         Fire control and emergency procedures

·         Alien vegetation clearing programme

·         Vegetation rehabilitation plan

Project implementation schedule

Planner begins with a result (i.e. a facility design) and must synthesize the steps required to yield this result. Essential aspects of construction planning include the generation of required activities, analysis of the implications of these activities, and choice among the various alternative means of performing activities. Construction planners also face the normative problem of choosing the best among numerous alternative plans. Planner must imagine the final facility as described in the plans and specifications.

In developing a construction plan, it is common to adopt a primary emphasis on either cost control or on schedule control as illustrated in figure below. Some projects are primarily divided into expense categories with associated costs. In these cases, construction planning is cost or expense oriented. Within the categories of expenditure, a distinction is made between costs incurred directly in the performance of an activity and indirectly for the accomplishment of the project. For example, borrowing expenses for project financing and overhead items are commonly treated as indirect costs. For other projects, scheduling of work activities over time is critical and is emphasized in the planning process. Finally, most complex projects require consideration of cost and scheduling over time, so that planning, monitoring and record keeping must consider both dimensions. In these cases, the integration of schedule and budget information is a major concern.