By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, July 21: The PWD (Roads) has stated they are unaware of any iconic structure or shopping mall project at Barik Point.
“Both the projects have been shelved. We are surprised that this issue has been raked up again,” a senior official said here on Wednesday.
He said there is no fresh proposal on how to utilise the Barik Point land that houses the PWD office.
The proposal of the state government to construct a shopping mall at the site had met with strong opposition from various quarters.
On Tuesday, a section of the media had questioned the status of the “iconic structure” that was proposed to come up at Barik Point when Community and Rural Development Minister Hamletson Dohling was in charge of the Urban Affairs Department.
The department had even invited firms to take part in a competition to choose the best architectural design for the proposed structure at Barik junction under the Smart City Mission.
NEHU’s Department of Architecture, Science and Technology and four firms had participated in the competition held in 2019. The firms were Faws Design, Shillong; Flying Elephant Studio Project, Bengaluru; Kshestra, Hyderabad and Visio Architecture Ltd, Port Louis, Mauritius.
The design prepared by Flying Elephant Studio Project was selected. The state government had already spent Rs 12 lakh for holding the competition.
Dohling had then said a world-class iconic structure would be built at Barik on about 3.5 acres of land of the State PWD (Roads).
It was proposed that the iconic structure would have facilities such as a parking lot, park and museum.
State Planning Board Chairman Lambor Malngiang had advocated the idea to develop the PWD office at Barik Point into a multi-level parking lot for vehicles.
He had contended that the multi-level parking lot would be of great help since schools such as All Saints, Pine Mount and Step by Step are located near the PWD office and parents could utilise the parking lot while dropping and picking up their wards from school.
