Overview
The need for a structured city addressing system is critical for Thimphu’s efficient functioning, especially given its rapid urban development. Addressing is essential not only for navigation but also for effective service delivery across all sectors. A poorly designed system affects both the government and citizens, as seen during the COVID-19 lockdowns when locating and linking people to services became a major challenge.
A robust addressing system is fundamental in today’s digital world, allowing services—especially emergency responses—to be more efficient. Establishing a standardized system ensures properties are easily identifiable, helping with planning, taxation, and service management.
Addressing Framework
The city addressing system is based on logical and standardized procedures that assign unique and unambiguous addresses. Without proper guidelines, inconsistencies arise, leading to confusion and inefficiency in service delivery. This document ensures uniformity across the Thromde.
Thimphu follows the “street-house” concept, where streets are identified and named based on hierarchy, location, and function. Buildings are then numbered systematically. Due to the city’s topography and irregular road alignments, a decametric numbering system is used—where even and odd numbers are assigned sequentially based on measured distances along the street. This method ensures simplicity while also providing an estimated distance reference.