By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 23: Shillong is far from realising its dream of becoming a Smart City, and while the pace at which projects under this ambition remains sluggish, the government has its own justification over the tag of laggards given to the city.
It may be recalled that Shillong was recently placed among the 10 worst performers in terms of implementing Smart City projects by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in its report.
According to the report, only one out of 96 Shillong Smart City projects has been completed. The projects are worth Rs 1,039 crore.
Responding to a starred question which could not be taken up during the just-concluded autumn session of the Assembly, Urban Affairs Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar said the reason behind the tardy progress is the fact that Shillong was selected as the 100th smart city — the last to be selected in June 2018 while others before it were selected between 2016 and 2018. “Hence, it is not fair to compare Shillong with other cities as they had started work much earlier,” the minister said. He also attributed the regular changes by the Ministry in methodology adopted for ranking as another reason.
“Shillong Smart City Ltd that was ranked 69th in the year 2022, had dropped down in its rankings in 2023 due to the change in ranking methodology,” Dhar said.
Reacting to another query, the minister said the total cost of business-cum-tourism cultural centre to be built at Police Bazar Rs 211.87 crore. The government has taken a loan for the project amounting to Rs 154.21 crore.