SHILLONG, March 18: A stretch of the proposed Shillong-Dawki road project measuring 11 kiometres starting Rilbong till 7th Mile – the all-important Package 1 which is four-lane – is the only section where not much progress has been made.
This four-lane stretch of the road project has made a cumulative physical progress of mere 6.66 per cent till now.
It may be noted that a huge portion of the land on this stretch belongs to defence authorities.
The four-lane section of the road project costs Rs 91.26 crore, for which sanction was awarded in November 2020.
Work on this project is undertaken by M/s SS Infrazone Pvt. Ltd, while its deadline is December 2022, as per the contract.
On the other hand, Package 4 has a cumulative physical progress of 17.92%, while Package 5 has relatively lesser 13.70 % of cumulative physical progress.
The 71-km-long National Highway 40 will be converted into a four-lane from Umshyrpi bridge in Shillong to Baniun at 7th Mile in Upper Shillong and two lanes thereafter till Dawki at an estimated cost of Rs 1,251 crore.
The project entails the construction of a bridge over river Umngot at Dawki.