By Our Reporter
Shillong: Twenty-one years after the Food Corporation of India (FCI) procured a three-acre plot of land at Mawlai Mawroh, the foundation stone for construction of the FCI (NE Frontier regional office) building was laid on Tuesday. The foundation stone was laid by Executive Director of FCI (North East Zone) Pinuel Basumatary in the presence of NEFR general manager C Songate, FCI staff and the local headman and members of the Dorbar Shnong of Mawlai Mawroh.
The construction work, to be executed by the Public Works Department (PWD), is scheduled to start from November and is expected to be completed by February 2014. An amount of Rs 9.69 crore has been sanctioned by the Union Government for the purpose.
At present, the regional and divisional offices of the FCI (NEF) has been functioning from rented buildings at Dhankheti near St. Edmund’s College and the other near Loreto Convent School respectively.
“This is the fulfillment of a long cherished dream and we will be the first in the zone to function from our own building,” Basumatary said during the function.
Basumatary informed that FCI godowns would come up at Baghmara, Mawphlang and Byrnihat through Central funding once the sites for the same are finalised.
He further mentioned that an additional storage house will be set up in Tura to meet the needs of the five districts in Garo Hills.
At present, there are three godowns located at Shillong, Tura and Jowai while the storage houses at Williamnagar and Nongstoin are run by the Meghalaya State Warehousing Corporation (MSWC) under the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
“We are prepared to take over from the MSWC at Nongstoin but we are currently waiting for the weigh-bridge to be installed,” he said.
He also mentioned that to set up a storage house in any selected location the land factor has to be taken care of by the state government after which compensation will subsequently be paid by the Union government.
Basumatary also stated that the storage capacity is decided by the state level committee set up by the state government involving government and FCI officials.