§ SIR HENRY COTTONTo ask the Secretary of State for India whether the Indian Government has decided to construct a road from British territory in the Tulpigoree district, through the independent state of Bhutan, for a distance of eighty miles into Tibet, in order to establish a new line of communication from Bengal to the new trade mart at Gyangtse in Central Tibet; and, if, so, what is the estimated cost of this project.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Morley.) The survey of a road from the Julpaguri district in Bengal through Bhutan to Chumbi was carried out in 1905, by agreement with the Bhutan authorities. But no proposal to construct the road has been received from the Government of 626 India, nor have any estimates been furnished of the cost.