Chief Minister Meghalaya, Conrad Sangma today met Union DONER Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh and thanked him for the recent road project sanctioned under North East Special Development Scheme (NESIDS) for upgradation of Mawshynrut-Hahim-Boko road in West Khasi Hills.
Dr. Singh told Sangma that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s instructions, special impetus is being given to improve the connectivity and transport through new airports, air flights in different sectors, double-gauge railway lines across the region, networks of roads and new inland waterways.
Dr. Singh noted the recent introduction of direct air flight from Shillong to Delhi. He said, this was a long pending requirement and Shillong, being a popular tourist destination as well as the original capital of the erstwhile Assam, richly deserved this facility.
Similarly, Dr. Singh recalled that when the Modi government came in 2014, many people in Meghalaya had never seen a train in their lifetime.
“Today an ambitious project to lay double track has been undertaken in the region,” he said.
Sangma informed the DONER Minister that the tourist spots in Meghalaya have started receiving visitors from all over in huge numbers.
To this, Dr. Singh responded by saying that he is confident that this year is going to be tourist boon for the North East region because many of the regular holidaymakers who followed annual routine of visiting European destinations, will now find a parallel option in Shillong and other similar destinations because while the European holiday resorts were badly affected by the Covid pandemic, the tourist resorts in North East remained mostly free of the pandemic.
The issue of allocation of funds in new projects with Central assistance also came up for discussion. Sangma also placed before Dr. Singh some new proposals for support from the DONER Ministry and North Eastern Council. The Union minister assured Sangma that he would examine these proposals.
