Construction of Shillong-Dawki road to commence in full swing: CM

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said the work for construction of the Shillong-Dawki road project will soon commence in full swing.

Speaking to reporters, Sangma said recently the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) have realloted the work for the two-three packages to new contractors.

“We had a review meeting along with the new contractors just about 10-15 days back and the idea was just to see their preparation and to give heads up that this is a working season and hence they should do all that they can to push as much work as possible in this next 6 months time,” he said.

“We got a very good and positive response from them and we expect the machineries and other manpower will be mobilized very soon and shortly we should see the work in all these roads commence at full swing,” he added.

To a question, Sangma said that there are multiple reasons which led to the surrendering of these packages by the previous contractors.

“There is no one specific reason for the different packages. In some locations we had some issues with forest clearances, in some areas we had issues with utility shifting, in some areas we had problems with land acquisition, and we had problems with certain localities where there was certain opposition by certain communities and groups.”

The CM however said that in general the biggest challenge faced by the project is land issue.

“There were multiple problems but in general of course the biggest challenge that Meghalaya faces, which is different from other states is the fact that land belongs to the community and hence it is a big task and challenge for us to be able to overcome that and the community, the individual owners also in hundreds of number so the exercise is very complicated and we do face lots of challenges because of that,” he said while adding  “But we are happy of course we are working hard, officials are working hard and we have overcome most of the challenges so I do hope this particular project of Shillong Dawki road should be on track soon.”

According to him, the different packages have different time frames for completion.