SHILLONG: The state government is exploring the option of additional roads on the Guwahati-Shillong route to mitigate the pressure on the Umiam hydro-electric dam, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma informed the House on Friday.
At present, vehicles, including trucks and trolleys, coming from Guwahati have to pass the 220 sq km scenic lake, a tourist attraction.
However, the Central Water Commission (CWC) had recently raised concern over the safety of the concrete dam, which has reportedly developed cracks, and had suggested an alternate route, Sangma said.
“We are looking at the possibility of having multiple entry-exit points… The CWC has advised that traffic be diverted downstream of the Umiam dam,” Sangma said in his reply to the debate on the governor’s address.
The issue of diversion of traffic on the Umiam dam, located around 15km from Shillong, was taken up with the government by the Meghalaya Energy Corporation, which had conducted a traffic vibration measurement study on the concrete structure in 2012, through the Central Water and Power Research Station, Pune.
“The findings indicated that the vibration levels are very low, insignificant and within the safe limit,” the chief minister said, quoting the report.
But he added that Pune centre also suggested that it was not advisable to have continuous vibration and suggested diversion of traffic, which would also “help in taking up maintenance works”.
Stating that the matter was brought to the notice of the House around nine years ago when he was the Leader of the Opposition, Sangma thanked Congress MLA George B Lyngdoh for bringing up the issue again in the Assembly.
The Umiam dam came up in the early 1960s and the Meghalaya State Development Report in 2008 said it has a projected life span of 400 years with a gross storage capacity of 1,47,000 acre feet. It also stated that the dead
storage capacity has been silted up and the life of the reservoir would be reduced to about 65 years if the current rate of siltation is not checked.
Dead storage refers to water in a reservoir that cannot be drained by gravity through a dam’s outlet, spillway or power plant intake and can only be pumped out.
VAB & pending Bills
On the Village Administration Bill, Sangma said the previous government had a meeting with stakeholders and the Bill was returned to the District Council with a message from the governor.
On the Bills pending with the District Council Affairs Department, the chief minister said 22 bills were submitted to the department between 2014 and 2016, out of which 10 were referred back to the councils for clarification and one is pending with the department.
Admitting that the purpose of setting up district councils was for protecting the identity and culture of local people, Sangma added that the purpose of the autonomous councils seems to have shifted, adding that the government recently sanctioned a museum and a research centre for the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council.
Healthcare
On the growing number of cancer cases in the state, the chief minister said the government is coming up with a policy for free cancer drugs. The draft policy for the same is in the final stage and the next Cabinet meeting will take a call on it.
Also, as many as 32 sub-health centres will be upgraded in this financial year and training will be provided to nurses for community health officers, Sangma informed.
The job of a community health officer would be to provide basic treatment to patients in the absence of doctors. “We are also working on war footing for the construction of medical colleges in Shillong and Tura,” he added.
