By Balakmen Suting
I have lived near this highway most of my life. My home sits close to what was once nationally known as NH-40, today redesignated NH-6, a road whose sounds formed the backdrop of my growing up. The pre-dawn rumble of trucks, the weekend surge of tourist vehicles climbing toward Shillong, the unceasing movement of a corridor that has long connected Assam to the heartland of Meghalaya.
I have travelled this road more times than I can count. And across all those journeys, I have never personally come across a single government-built rest area, truck lay-by, or wayside facility along this stretch.
I offer that as a personal observation, not an accusation. Perhaps such a facility exists somewhere along NH-6 that I have not encountered. But as a frequent traveller who has genuinely looked, I have not seen one. The only stop available to the tired driver, the travelling family, or the tourist arriving from Guwahati has been the petrol pump accessed not by right, but by the courteous discretion of its staff.
That quiet reality led me to ask a question most commuters never think to ask: what exactly is NHAI supposed to provide, and are we receiving it?
A Mandate Most People Do Not Know Exists
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has a formal programme called Wayside Amenities (WSA). Many regular users of this highway are simply unaware it exists. These are not petrol pumps. They are dedicated rest facilities, mandated by government policy, to be built every 40 to 60 kilometres along national highways across India. Each facility is designed to include a food court, clean toilets with shower facilities, a medical clinic, an ATM, a children’s play area, a vehicle repair workshop, a driver dormitory, electric vehicle charging points, and a village haat promoting local handicrafts and produce.
This is not a Wishlist. It is a committed, funded programme of the Government of India meant for every commuter, truck driver, tourist, and family travelling our national highways.
Nationally, delivery has been slow. As of late 2025, of more than 700 sites planned and 510 awarded across India, only 110 wayside amenities are operational. For Meghalaya, the number is not 110, not 10, not even one.
An RTI response from NHAI’s own Project Implementation Unit in Shillong confirmed what personal experience already suggested: not a single wayside amenity has been developed anywhere in Meghalaya, despite more than eleven years of continuous toll collection since the Diengpasoh plaza opened in 2014. During FY 2024–25 alone, Meghalaya’s four toll plazas collectively recorded ₹96.05 crore in toll revenue. Every vehicle on this corridor contributed to that figure. The amenities it was meant to help build never came.
What This Means for Road Tourism
With my background in Tourism, I write this with conviction beyond personal inconvenience. The old NH-40, today’s NH-6 is one of the most scenic highway corridors in Northeast India, winding through rain-sculpted highlands, living root bridge country, and the ancestral landscapes of the Khasi and Jaiñtia peoples. For the growing number of travellers choosing road journeys to experience rural India at their own pace, this highway holds remarkable potential.
But road tourism needs infrastructure to breathe. A traveller with nowhere safe to stop, no clean facility to use, and no space to taste local food or buy local crafts is a traveller whose experience is diminished before it has fully begun. NHAI’s own vision for wayside amenities included village haats offering area-specific handicrafts, handlooms, and local food, spaces designed to bring direct economic benefit to surrounding communities. On NH-6, that vision has not left the page.
For rural communities living along this corridor, a functional wayside amenity is not merely a tourist convenience. It is a marketplace, a livelihood, and a dignified point of connection between traveller and landscape. Its absence is their loss as much as anyone’s.
In Closing
This article is, first, information because most people on this road do not know that wayside amenities are a policy entitlement, not a luxury. The petrol pump has been generous. It was never meant to carry this responsibility alone.
It is also a respectful reminder to NHAI and to policymakers: a mandate long deferred is a traveller long underserved.
If I have missed an existing facility along this highway, I stand gladly corrected. But if the RTI record and lived experience together reflect the truth, the question must be asked simply and clearly: after eleven years and crores collected at our toll plazas, when does Meghalaya’s share of this promise arrive?
The miles on this highway are beautiful. The people who travel them deserve a road that knows where to stop.
