SHILLONG, March 1: Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Monday inaugurated a workshop on ‘Urban Mobility for Shillong City’ at the State Convention Centre here.
The workshop aims at preparing an action plan on the recommendations of the study on Urban Mobility for Shillong City conducted by the Meghalaya Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation Ltd (MIDFC) and the Project Management Unit (PMU) of the Meghalaya Integrated Transport Project (MITP), a World Bank-funded project.
The study was entrusted to a global consulting firm, Dalberg.
Addressing the gathering, the deputy chief minister hoped that the recommendations made through the extensive and comprehensive study conducted by Dalberg will aid in decongesting Shillong.
He said that the suggestion for operation of cable cars is highly favourable for Shillong as land acquisition for construction of roads and flyovers often meet with stiff opposition due to the land tenure system in the state.
Agreeing that the need of the hour is to meet short-term goals, he reiterated the need to improve and increase public and school bus services.
In his address, Dr D Vijay Kumar, Project Director, MITP, and CEO, MIDFC, said that the problem of improving urban mobility was a complex problem which involves many stakeholders.
He stated that Shillong has the potential of becoming a world-class city and one of the best hill stations in the country, adding that unless the mobility problem remains unsolved, this potential will not be realised.
The study conducted by Dalberg focused on the needs of the citizens, sustainability and unlocking economic growth.
With this vision in mind, 10 key suggestions were made for improving mobility systems in the capital city — introduction of high-frequency people-friendly public buses, building of ring roads so as to divert traffic from national highways, introduction of cable cars as an alternative to road-based mobility, creating walkable culture corridors connecting places of tourist attraction to encourage walking, providing smart streetlights in municipal areas, introducing non-fuss school buses, establishing next-door markets to decentralise daily-need markets, reduction in street parking by curbing illegal parking in municipal areas, introducing car cap policy to reverse trends in car ownership and creating a self-sufficient new Shillong township.