SHILLONG, March 6: The ongoing construction work of the much-awaited Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT) at Mawlai Mawiong, which will be completed within this month, has hit a roadblock due to non-availability of additional land.
A PWD official informed that the main building of the ISBT is completed but the Transport department is yet to provide the additional land for the approach road.
“We have communicated to the Transport department that the additional land is unavailable for the approach road. We will go with whatever land we have and close the project in March,” the official said.
According to him, once PWD pulls the plug on the project, the onus will be on the Transport department to arrange additional land for the approach road.
In addition, the construction work of the ramp that will connect taxi parking with the main building is going on while the electrical and plumbing work in the building is almost completed.
According to officials, they were planning to finish the project much earlier. However, the project was delayed of several months owing to the COVID-19 pandemic
It may be mentioned that the project was approved in 2013 by the DoNER Ministry through the North Eastern Council at Rs 48.31 crore. The ISBT is being built over a plot 53041.74-square metre at Mawlai Mawiong, and the timeline given to complete the project was September 2017. Works for the project had commenced on September 4, 2014.