Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said that his government has laid a roadmap to further the progress and development of the state and to foster a positive change for the people.
“The MDA (Meghalaya Democratic Alliance) government is working with a clear vision and a roadmap to take the state to new heights within the next 10, 25 and even 50 years,” Sangma said during the foundation laying programme for three major projects for Shillong.
The three projects are the New Shillong Water Supply Scheme, land reclamation project at the waste processing and disposal site at Marten and the construction of internal roads within the New Shillong Township at Mawkhanu, Mawpdang.
The CM stated that the New Shillong Township, which will include a ‘Knowledge City’ and transfer of the administrative offices from the capital proper, has been allocated a budget of Rs 10,000 crore for development, which, in turn, will churn out 50,000 new jobs. The central government will allocate another Rs 500 crore grant for the NST as part of its move to establish eight new townships throughout the country.
The New Shillong Water Supply Scheme would, in all probability, be one of the largest projects funded by the state government and Sangma described it as a “well-planned project.”
To address the growing water demands of Shillong, the New Shillong Water Supply Scheme (NSWSS) will be implemented by the Public Health Engineering Department. This project aims to provide a reliable source of clean water to the NST and the 32 adjoining villages.
The NSWSS is being planned to cater to an explosion in the population once the NST is developed; the government estimates that the population will rise from its current 30,000 to 2 lakh people by 2042 and more than 4 lakh by 2057.
Expecting the project to be completed within the next 36 months, Sangma said, “This project will cost approximately Rs 1,600 crore to be implemented and in the first phase alone, close to Rs 500 crore will be spent.”
As for the internal roads’ construction, Sangma said that these internal roads which are for Mawkhanu area will cost approximately Rs 185 crore.
And on the perennially blighted Marten garbage dump, CM spoke optimistically about how all the waste there will be recycled, with major transformation taking place within the next 18 months.
“Once the entire legacy waste is removed, our intention is to create some good public space out there and convert the dump yard into something that the public can enjoy at large,” Sangma said.
