SHILLONG: It has been more than a month since the Mawlai bypass was inaugurated and stakeholders are now urging the administration to turn the road into two-way as soon as possible in order to ease traffic congestion further.
The road, which was inaugurated in August, is expected to reduce traffic along the Mawiong stretch of the Guwahati-Shillong road.
Mawlai MLA PT Sawkmie said that the road is not only being used by the people of Mawlai but by the people of the entire city as well.
He also informed that the road will be declared two-way very soon as he had held discussion on the matter with SP of traffic.
Hillbirth Kynshikhar, a vehicle owner, said that he is very happy with the road as it is helping the people.
He also added that since there are fewer vehicles travelling along the road, being stuck in traffic is no longer a problem.
A taxi driver also echoed similar views saying that the road has helped cabbies to a great exrtent. Recalling the traffic snarls in Mawioing, he stated that taxis are now able to drop tourists to Umiam Lake in a very short time.
He also added that it would be even better if the road was made two- way at the earliest. “Earlier, it used to take us two hours to reach the city but now it just takes us half-an-hour at the most,” he said.
Ashok Kumar Deb, a resident of Rynjah, said that the road will definitely help those who stay in Rynjah as it takes around one-and-a-half hours to reach Mawiong from Guwahati and almost the same amount of time to reach Shillong from Mawiong due to traffic.
“The road has proven to be a great help for people like us who stay in Rynjah,” he said.
However, there are also those who feel that the bypass hasn’t helped much people coming into the city as traffic snarls are still the order of the day on the Mawiong stretch of the Guwahati-Shillong road.
“ I keep coming to Shillong frequently and I haven’t felt there has been much change on this particular stretch even after the bypass, particularly in the morning as a huge number of vehicles stand bumper-to-bumber waiting to move on,” said Abhijeet Saikia, who claimed to be a medical representative, while waiting for his taxi to move near the marten on Saturday.
It may be mentioned that the road passes through beautiful landscape with hardly any shops and residences nearby and only the final touches are yet to be completed.
The seven-kilometer road was sanctioned at a cost of Rs 20 crore but was later revised at an estimate of Rs 27.87 crore.
