Bhutan began to modernize its roads in 1961 and completed paving the first section of a national highway in 1962. As of 2008, there were just over 1,000 miles of national highways and about 1,500 miles of paved roads. Now these statistics are a bit misleading if you’re thinking in terms of U.S. highways. Most of Bhutan’s national highways wouldn’t meet the criteria for U.S. county roads. The minimum width is 8.2 feet.
A local road near Paro
National highways are usually wider, but rarely can two trucks pass each other while keeping all wheels on the pavement.
Trucks Passing on Bhutan Road (from RAO)
In addition to being narrow, the roads are extremely uneven. Note the waves in the above picture and the potholes and patches. According to a World Bank report: “Road building practices in Bhutan use mostly obsolete technology and follow the archaic practices of the mid-20th century. Road construction and maintenance is labor intensive and marked by low productivity and high costs. This results in poor quality roads that have high levels of roughness, poor serviceability, and a short life.” What an understatement!
A great deal of the work is done by hand. It’s not unusual to see a group of women sitting alongside the road using rocks to break up larger rocks into smaller rocks. I saw only two types of equipment being used in road construction and maintenance.
Repaving a local road in Thimphu
Clearing an avalanche
Where are the graders?
Contrary to the photo with the passing trucks, most roads do not have more than a center line, if that. Absolutely no shoulders and few guardrails that would actually stop you.
No lines, no guardrails
There’s also a small army of women with no-handled twig brooms who sweep the roads and clear the gutters, when they exist.
Roads conform to the topography. Bridges are built to span rivers and streams, not provide a direct link from point A to point B like on many of our superhighways. As a consequence, roads meander in and out of ravines and around mountains. A straight stretch as long as a football field is a rarity.
Climbing a mountain by road
Lots of switchbacks
As a consequence, there’s no such thing as a short road trip timewise.
| From | To |
Distance (mi) |
Driving time |
| Paro | Thimphu |
40 |
1 ½ hrs |
| Thimphu | Punakha |
48 |
3 hrs |
| Punakha | Wangdue |
8 |
½ hr |
| Wangdue | Trongsa |
80 |
4 ½ hrs |
| Trongsa | Bumthang |
42 |
2 ½ hrs |
At the end of 2006 there were about 30,000 vehicles on Bhutan’s road. More than 60 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2006. I saw one accident with no injuries–two trucks collided on a curve. (See–no lines!)
You're in my space!
After about a half hour, drivers waiting in the lines of cars to get by took things into hand and removed a couple of the concrete side posts on the other side of the road.
In general, most drivers were quite polite. There was a lot of honking to let others know you were coming and to get cars, trucks, people, and animals to move to the side, but compared to Nepal and India, it was quiet–probably because there were so few cars on the road.
A Yak on the Road
Animals roam freely
Not everyone owns a car
Thank You!