Meghalaya is known for delay in execution of several projects but the longest pending one that still lies incomplete is the Hotel Crowborough Project in the heart of the city. That half-constructed hotel stands testimony to the half-hearted efforts of the government to take every project to its logical end so as to ensure that there are no time and cost overruns. The bridge along the Shillong bypass was constructed several years before the road was made. It received no facelift when the brand new road was constructed. It has started to crack at the beams and even the repairs carried out on that bridge are temporary in nature. They show a complete lack of accountability in ensuring that the bridge serves its purpose of creating a bypass so that coal and cement laden trucks, with loads that surpass the permissible limit by three times the weight, do not need to pass through Shillong City and through the Umiam Bridge which was never designed to support the weight of hundreds of trucks carry loads of thirty metric tonnes each.
The news that a Bailey bridge normally used by the army to quickly span ravines in difficult terrains will be used in Umroi as an alternative to the present unusable bridge at Dwar U Ksuid is welcome news. A Bailey bridge is a portable, pre-fabricated truss bridge which takes just 24 hours to assemble and yet is strong enough to withstand enormous pressure. It was developed in 1940–1941 by the British for military use during the Second World War and is now extensively used by all military engineering units worldwide. Bailey Bridges have also been used for quick communication when natural disasters like earthquakes and flash floods etc. destroy existing bridges.
In Meghalaya roads and bridges have been the worst for wear. This summer several bridges especially in Garo Hills were carried away by flash-floods. Many of the bridges in rural Meghalaya have seen extensive wear and tear and will not hold for long. They are a glaring testimony to the shoddy work done by the Public Works Department (PWD) which has never been held accountable because citizens don’t care enough to question the government on these badly constructed public utilities. The presence of the Lok Ayukta would be meaningless if cases are not brought before this body for adjudication. While the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) keeps a check on the spending of different departments of the government, it is not in a position to carry out tests on the quality of materials used in road building projects and in constructing bridges. Even within Shillong city there are bridges that have been dismantled for expansion but have taken more than a year to complete although they are only about 200 metres in length. Unless the public take the bull by the horns governments will continue to be lackadaisical in their approach