Meghalaya’s delayed road projects

The Shillong-Dawki highway is an important connecting link between the state capital and a border trading outpost. It should have received the highest priority. The project which was inaugurated by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu in October 2021 on National Highway-40 is allocated a sum of Rs 1,600 crore. At the time, Naidu had stated that all infrastructure projects in the North East should be fast-tracked so that the region can become the growth engine of the country. Naidu also pointed at judicious use of development funds earmarked for the North East. The Vice President perhaps does not know the human factor in the region where corruption is the by-word. Granted that the national highway project is being constructed by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL)a central government undertaking but while working in each of the states of the North East they have to contend with local conditions such as extortion by sundry “pressure groups” that exist to ostensibly put pressure on the government to deliver public goods but have become the leeches that society can do without.
It becomes well night impossible to complete a project when the company executing the project is hampered by obstacles at every juncture. Land acquisition that has been completed faces new hurdles from the local institutions who all wish to make capital out of the project. No one is really interested in the completion of the project but on how much they can milk out of it. At this rate there would be few takers for tendering for such projects. There are pressures on so many counts. Each village wants the company to get its construction materials from them irrespective of the quality of the materials; they want the company to employ local people despite the low productivity and so on. The demands are endless. In such a situation can we expect quality roads and infrastructure?
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has to take a call on this and get the State Government to provide security through use of Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) considering the State Police are incapable of tackling these local forces. Unless some urgent measures are taken to enable the speedy construction of all national highway projects Meghalaya will continue to languish in a state of limbo. Every project must have a timeline within which it has to be completed. Failing that it would be futile to expect trade and commerce to progress. The central government which has become the milking cow should not monitor all such projects meticulously. The Centre is spending public money and it must hold the states accountable for facilitating completion of such projects within a definite timeline.