By Barnes Mawrie
“New Shillong” that is the word that has caught the imagination of many Shillongites who are looking forward to some respite from the cramming congestion of the present city. Images that flood our minds when we think of New Shillong are those of good four-lane roads, multiple access roads, well planned buildings, exquisite public parks, spacious parking lots, good water supply etc. However, frankly speaking Shillongites will be disappointed sooner or later since those things will remain only in imaginations. I happened to reach Umsawli a few weeks ago and what I witnessed is a lacklustre New Shillong. New Shillong as of now is only a few sporadic constructions that are springing up. There seems to be not much of planning either. I wonder when this ambitious project will be completed. Take for example the State of Andhra Pradesh which is progressing towards making the twin cities of Vijayawada and Guntur into the State capital, a massive plan is in place to make these cities one of the best in India. There are plans of good highways, abundant water supply, non-stop power supply etc. Given the dynamism of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, we can be sure this project will see the light of day soon. Here in Meghalaya instead, the concept of New Shillong has been the talk of over two decades but without much materialization. It looks like people of Meghalaya are doomed to be contented only with empty dreams and wishful projects.
It appears that MUDA has not planned for a four-lane road connecting old Shillong and New Shillong. This is evident from the fact that buildings are already mushrooming on the road to Mawdiang-diang. There are even hotels constructed close to the present road. Perhaps some regulations are already formulated for the road expansion, but they are not being implemented as it happens with many other policies in Meghalaya. It is high time that the MUDA minister and her team start acting upon it. Waiting for buildings to crop up along the road will not only slow down construction but it may prove more expensive in terms of money and time. More houses are going to appear in the coming years and soon it would be too late to think of a four-lane road. As it appears today, there seems to be no plan for a four-lane road or else the Government would have already notified the people not to build houses close to the road. If they are however thinking only of a two-lane road, then I say they are planning only for the present and not for the future. Having witnessed the traffic situation in our old Shillong, not to think of wider roads in New Shillong would indicate a complete lack of planning and good will. I have seen a few “new” cities like New Delhi, New Kolkata, New Bhopal etc and what impresses me about them is good planning in terms of wide roads, ample intersections, fly-overs, good drainage system, water supply, electricity, disposal system etc. These infrastructures came up much before residential complexes cropped up. None of these things are visible in the so called “New Shillong”.
In my opinion the New Shillong construction is going in the wrong direction for the reason that roads and other basic amenities should have come up first before the buildings. What we see at present is a reverse process where buildings are coming up before even roads are thought of. This would be like a stupid man who builds a tiny garage when he had made up his mind to buy a bus. Having wide roads first would have facilitated the whole process of developing the city. With the various new constructions in the offing a lot of building materials need to be transported to the location. As of now the narrow weak road leading to Umsawli is bearing the brunt of heavily loaded lorries carrying building materials to the site. This is destroying the only road used by our villagers in the Shilliang-Umkhen Region. It is also posing a danger to the villagers especially children, who live along this road.
The question many people are asking is whether MUDA has prepared a comprehensive city plan. If so then why do we not see things happening concretely? Such an important and mega plan should be made known to the public. After all it is the public that is going to be affected by such a plan either for good or for bad. How can the Government be so secretive about such a plan? In many countries I have seen mega plans of public interest (roads, railways, airports, shopping malls, hospitals, public parks etc) being publicly displayed on bill boards. In this manner every citizen is aware of what is being planned and done by the government and he/she is able to voice his/her opinion. Here, instead, it looks like the Government is very clandestine about the whole issue of “New Shillong”. This will only generate suspicions in the minds of the public about the project on the whole. In my opinion, MUDA should make public the New Shillong City Plan. This should be displayed in newspapers and bill boards. The Government is not going to lose anything by doing this; instead it is going to gain more admiration and trust from the public.
Not to be pessimistic, I believe we have a dynamic Chief Minister in the person of Dr. Mukul Sangma who gives the impression that he is intent on doing something positive. “New Shillong” is an urgent need as we are inching towards a traffic standstill in our old city. Looking at the traffic condition growing from bad to worse, the only immediate solution is to relieve the city through its expansion. New Shillong is without any doubt the need of the hour.