SHILLONG, Dec 28: Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong said the New Shillong Township (NST) would help ease the state capital’s traffic congestion problem.
“We will focus on shifting the administrative headquarters of Meghalaya to NST if we come back to power (in 2023),” he told reporters on Tuesday, adding that shifting most government offices would go a long way in addressing the issue of traffic snarls.
Tynsong said the state government is planning to inaugurate the new Assembly building at Mawdiangdiang next year. “I am pretty sure that the traffic in the city will decrease significantly with the shifting of the government offices,” he said.
The Deputy Chief Minister said the government has been facing challenges in widening the roads of Shillong because of a lack of space.
The traffic police have been trying their best to manage the traffic but their efforts are a “short-term solution” as the number of vehicles on the roads keeps increasing, he said.
He admitted that some elite schools without parking spaces have been contributing to the city’s traffic problem.
“We have asked the Education Department to work out some system to reduce the number of vehicles during school hours,” Tynsong said.
But traffic congestion cannot be addressed without the awareness among and cooperation from the citizens of Shillong, he pointed out.
“We cannot just come up with orders and notifications. We need the cooperation of the school authorities and the parents to reduce the traffic during school hours,” Tynsong said.
Asked if the government plans to issue a notification to scrap vehicles older than 15 years, he said the provisions for this are laid down in the Motor Vehicle Act, which is a central law.
“The Transport department is looking at all possibilities of reducing the number of vehicles. But I am not sure how much this will help since people keep on buying new vehicles,” Tynsong said.
“Some families have four-five vehicles and we cannot help it,” he added. Tynsong seemed helpless when asked if the government would create parking spaces.
“We have not been able to acquire defence land because of our inability to provide alternative space to them. We are caught in a catch-22 situation,” he said.
He said the land for the four-lane Shillong-Dawki road project from Umshyrpi bridge to Baniun at Mylliem was acquired due to the intervention of the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways.
“The NHIDCL will start the four-lane road work from January next year,” he said.
