SHILLONG: The High Power Committee of the Assembly which met on Friday zeroed in on a few plots of land at Mawdiangdiang in the New Shillong Township area, 14 km from city, for construction of the new Meghalaya Legislative Assembly building.
The Committee has suggested that the new Assembly should be constructed near the office of the Home Guards and Civil Defence at Mawdiangdiang or in adjacent plots.
Assembly Speaker AT Mondal informed that the meeting has decided to approach the Urban Affairs department for procurement of the land measuring around 50 to 90 acres for construction of the new Assembly complex.
“We will write to the Urban Affairs Department to hand over the land so that construction work can begin at the earliest,” Mondal said, while showing concern over the long delay in construction of the new Assembly after the old Assembly at Police Bazar was gutted in a devastating fire in January, 2001.
Once the Assembly Secretariat gets possession of the land, the State Government would approach the Union Government for sanction of funds for construction of the Assembly complex.
The move to select Mawdiangdiang as the site for the Assembly has been taken to avoid further congestion within the capital city.
The Speaker had inspected several sites in the city, but the decision of constructing the House in the city was finally abandoned to prevent additional chaos due to the ever-growing traffic congestion in the city.
To enable the construction of the Assembly building at Mawdiangdiang, the State Government had to pass a resolution on April 10, 2013, negating an earlier resolution passed on December 20, 2004, against construction of the Assembly building at Mawdiangdiang.
