Chukha
Chukha's hydropower dams (1,356 MW) transformed Bhutan's economy—Tala project alone raised electricity's GDP share to 22% while funding the kingdom's social services.
Chukha transformed Bhutan from medieval isolation to modern prosperity—through 1,356 megawatts of hydroelectric power crashing down Himalayan gorges. The district contains both the 336 MW Chukha Dam (1986) and the 1,020 MW Tala project (2007), together generating more revenue than the rest of Bhutan's economy combined at their respective peaks. When Chukha came online in 1987, it single-handedly pushed GDP growth to 25.4%—a phase transition that monetized the kingdom's vertical geography. Tala's commissioning in 2007 spiked growth to 19.7%, expanding electricity's GDP share to 22%. The district demonstrates keystone infrastructure dynamics: these two installations provide over 30% of national revenue, enable downstream industries (cement, calcium carbide, ferro-alloys), and fund Bhutan's famously generous social services. Phuentsholing, Bhutan's second-largest city and commercial capital, occupies the district's southern border with India, serving as the primary gateway for bilateral trade with the nation that purchases 95% of Bhutan's electricity exports. The geographic arrangement creates concentrated dependency—single points of infrastructure supporting an entire national economy. By 2026, Chukha faces the paradox of hydropower success: climate change threatens the glacier-fed rivers powering the turbines while simultaneously increasing demand from a warming Indian subcontinent. The district's prosperity hinges on precipitation patterns in distant Himalayan peaks.