Govt to spend Rs 2,000 crore to make Shillong a futuristic city

SHILLONG, Jan 24: The state government will invest around Rs 2,000 crore to make Shillong a futuristic city.
After laying the foundation stones for three road projects leading to New Shillong Township (NST) on Wednesday, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters that for the first time the state is witnessing a planned and focused approach to de-congest the city.
He said not just NST, Shillong will also have to be de-congested and turned into a modern city. He said several projects have been initiated towards this end. He said such projects were never initiated before.
“As we start inaugurating them, people will realise the kind of transformation that is taking place in the city,” he claimed.
Of the three roads, two will lead straight to the proposed administrative city in NST. It will have bus services and other utilities.
Stating that the work for the New Secretariat will start by October this year, the chief minister said the existing area, where the Secretariat is located, will be used to expand the roads there.  He said the Integrated Command and Control Centre will be functional by within this year and for which, some 300 CCTV cameras are being installed to monitor the city.
The government also has plans to create a small recreational park in the Golf Link area and develop a waterfront project in the Polo area.
“Shillong will see transformation like never before,” the CM asserted.
Meanwhile, the three road projects are Bellafonte-NST (Rs 49 crore), Diengpasoh Road to Shillong Bypass (Rs 55 crore) and Bribah Mawpat-NST (Rs 27.49 crore).
The tendering process is expected to begin in a couple of weeks’ time.
Officials giving presentations said the government had around 900 acres of land in the NST area and it recently acquired another 800 acres in the Mawkhanu area for the expansion of the city.
Stating that many projects will come up, they said the government wants to take the local communities on board so that the areas can be developed in a planned manner and for which, the government is willing to provide technical guidance to the communities.