SHILLONG: The much awaited multi-storied Polo market complex aimed at removing ugly road side stalls and creating sleek 297 shops, was inaugurated on Thursday by Urban Affairs Minister Hamlet Dohling.
Speaking on the occasion, he did not forget to thank the previous government for coming up with the project but maintained that it was not an easy walk for the present government to complete the project which was started on March 1, 2017 and the scheduled date of completion was December 31, 2019 at a sanctioned cost of Rs 21.41 crore.
Dohling said that there were many financial constraints and litigation filed by the vendors in completing the project which was sanctioned in the year 2010-11. He maintained that the MDA government followed up on pending projects and met the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri twice requesting him to release the remaining amount of funds required to complete the project.
Apart from the Polo market project, Dohling also informed that the government has followed up on a number of pending projects under the Urban Affairs Department which has resulted in the completion of composting plants in Tura and Nongpoh and also the ISBT in Tura. He further added that the process of replacement of the incinerator at Marten ground and the setting up of common bio-medical waste treatment and disposal facilities are in progress.
The minister said that the people should keep up with the aspiration of the government to keep the Polo market clean.
Minister of Health and Family Welfare AL Hek said, “We are one step ahead to make it a Times Square of Shillong”. He added that to make it a ‘Times Square’, the hearts of the people should have the desire to make it clean and not to rub lime or spit in and around the place.
Local MLA Adelbert Nongrum, however, stressed that the shopkeepers who he term as educated youth should not give away the stalls to any unauthorized people. He reminded them that it was their duty to ensure that outsiders do not swarm the state.
The Polo Market complex is a state of the art building designed to rehabilitate road side vendors and hawkers of Polo Bazaar. The different stalls are vegetable shops, fish stalls, pork stalls, beef stalls, chicken stalls, tea stalls, grocery, pan/kwai (betelnut) shop, mutton stalls etc. On the day, deeds of agreement and shop keys were also handed out to a few of the shopkeepers.
Another Project
With the inauguration of the Polo Market, the government will not stop there but will take up another ambitious project sanctioned at an amount of Rs 75 crore for the construction of a new polo market adjacent to the new market complex. He said that the project was expected to be completed in the next three years. “I hope that the project gets completed within 3 years. We intend to make our activities transparent”, the minister said.