By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Oct 10: The construction of the much-delayed road from Shillong to Upper Shillong (Package 1) of the 90 km Shillong-Dawki Road project is set to resume after more than two years.
An official of the NHIDCL on Wednesday told The Shillong Times that an agreement has been signed with the executing agency for the project and the construction would start this month.
The 11.60 km stretch of the road would be executed by New India Contractors-BCC (joint venture) at a sanctioned cost of Rs 351 crore.
Asked if the land has been handed over, the official said that only a small stretch of about 170 metres remains to be acquired.
Earlier, the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism was refusing to release land for the project. The official said the company would take around two years to complete the four-lane road.
The construction work on Package 1 of the project started during COVID but the previous contractor abandoned it after working for some time.
The four-lane road from Shillong to Upper Shillong is a part of the JICA-funded Shillong-Dawki Road project. The stretch often remains packed with vehicles now.
The entire road project has been divided into five packages of which three packages are yet to be re-awarded after the previous contractors abandoned the assignments. The project is being monitored by the High Court of Meghalaya, which barred the felling of more trees in the stretch covered under the first phase without any work being done.