SHILLONG: The New Shillong Township (NST) Project which aims to de-congest Shillong city, is finally coming up well though the implementation of the project has been quite slow
Speaking on the matter, Urban Affairs Minister, Ronnie V Lyngdoh said that the Government would take up more infrastructure projects including roads in the area. “We recently had a meeting on the matter and we have asked all the department not to work in isolation but in coordination,” he said.
Lyngdoh said that the Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma in the last meeting had told the PWD to ensure that there was enough space left for utility when they undertake road projects in the area since many times, PWD while undertaking road projects leave out drains and such drains damage the roads very early
“We have told PWD to change their mindset and I believe this is a penny wise pound foolish approach,” he said, adding that PWD spent around 40-50 lakh to construct one kilometer of road and adding drainage work in to the road projects would cost PWD maximum Rs 10 lakh per kilometer.
Informing that most of the land which were acquired in the NST have been allotted to different departments and agencies, Lyngdoh pointed out that the new building of Meghalaya Legislative Assembly and its secretariat besides members’ hostel and employees’ quarters would be constructed in the areas.
“There is even a possibility to shift the Civil Secretariat into the new township rea to ease the congestion in Shillong city, besides the present Civil Secretariat building is very old,” he said
He, however, added that the works on the new township would be taken up in phase-wise manner
Though there is no timeline to commission the project, Lyngdoh said that the PWD had also been asked to acquire land keeping provisions for developing four lane road and the roads can be developed later depending on the availability of the resources.
The idea of NST was conceived long time back in order to de-congest Shillong and different structures like IIM Shillong, NIFT, Meghalaya Assembly, Information Technology park, Urban park, Shillong International Centre for Performing Arts and Culture, Government Guest Houses of Nagaland and Mizoram, Reid Chest Hospital, Hindi institute, English and Foreign Language University are lined up to be developed in the new township area.