The total proposed budget for the financial year (FY) 2023-2024 for Thimphu Thromde is almost Nu 2.18 billion (bn). The current budget is about Nu 1.3bn and the capital budget is about Nu 814 million (mn).
According to the Thimphu Thromde’s public consultation on services and development, the Thromde’s 2023-2024 budget outlay includes mandatory expenses, operations and maintenance, subsidy for city bus services, work force wages and overtime payments, education sector, health sector, spill over budget, amongst others.
Similarly, from the proposed budget for the FY 2023-2024, about Nu 371mn is allocated for education, Nu 2.9mn for health and about Nu 340.6mn and Nu 0.60mn respectively for Infra and operation and maintenance.
About Nu 12.5mn is also allocated for environment. Nu 82mn is allocated as spill over budget for the FY 2023-2024, amongst others.
According to the Thromde, the budget for the FY 2022-2023 was about Nu 1.5bn. About Nu 129.8mn was used for spill over activities, Nu 557.95mn for specific structure and Nu 293.1mn for roads and drainage works. For the FY 2022-2023 the budget was also used in sewer networks accounting to about Nu 40.1mn, Nu 26.5mn in electric works, Nu 90mn in annual frame work contract, Nu 53mn in environment division and Nu 2.9mn in health sector.
Meanwhile, the draft Thimphu structure plan (TSP) 2023-2047 was also launched in June 2023 with a theme of urban structure and connectivity (land use, mobility, water utilities), socioeconomics development (employment, housing, community facilities), and nature and cultural preservation (green spaces, natural environment and cultural heritage).
The draft TSP 2023-2047 was made in consultation with the Royal Commission for Urban Development (RCUD) in collaboration with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (MoIT) and Thimphu Thromde.
The Thromde’s TSP review includes TSP, green infrastructure master plan, utility infrastructure plan, transport master plan, city centre action plan (CCAP), amongst others.
According to the TSP, the designated land use will be Thimphu Thromde boundary, Thimphu Thromde southern extension boundary, Dodeyna, Begana, Changtagang neighbours outside Thimphu Thromde.
Similarly, with the Thromde’s structure plan, a building’s height limit is categorized as high, medium and low categories. In the categories A and B, it includes the 5-6 storeys as high, categories C and D with 3-4 storey as medium and categories E and F with 1-2 storeys as low.
According to the Thromde’s urban planning division, the division manages the Thimphu structure plan 2002-2027, 15 local area plans spreading across 26 square km of the Thimphu city.
The most parts of the LAPs in the south of Thimphu are developed with the Asian Development Bank’s funding and most of the LAPs in the north of Thimphu is funded by the World Bank.
In the discussions the Thromde has also touched on challenges and obligations faced by the Thromde with increased urban populations, land fragmentation, ad-hoc developments, the already inadequate urban infrastructure and services with overwhelming increased demands.
In addition, the peri-urban and sub-urban areas are characterized by haphazard developments which constrain proper planning administration and management of the city is entrusted with Thromde which is also working under immense constraints of limited legal framework and weak institutional setup.
Sherab Dorji from Thimphu
