Umiam-Shillong highway set to be upgraded

SHILLONG: The state government has given a push to the plan to expand the Guwahati-Shillong road to four lanes till the city to reduce congestion from Mawiong.
It takes 1.5-2 hours to reach Umiam from Guwahati but the problem starts after crossing Umiam and it takes around an hour or more to reach Shillong from there due to heavy traffic.
Frequent travellers say the road is generally clear till Mawiong and after that one will usually find a long queue of vehicles till Shillong and it consumes most of the time. Sources said though it will be a big challenge for the government to acquire land on the stretch from Umiam to Shillong it is committed to completing the project.
However, many citizens rule out the challenge as they feel that the government can acquire land on a mere 20 km stretch of land since earlier it had acquired land for as many as 70 km of land for the Umiam-Jorabat four-lane project.
The Umiam-Jorabat road is nearing completion with some minor work left to be completed on the Umsning bypass.
Sources in the government said during a discussion with media persons that the matter has been taken up with the chief minister after which the Public Works Department and the chief minister have started working towards the idea of extending the four-lane road till Shillong.
Currently, the four lane road is till Umiam, around 17 km from the capital city.