Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has said that the initial design for shifting the whole Secretariat and other government departments to the New Shillong Township (NST) will be cleared by September.
Shifting of the administrative building of the Government of Meghalaya to the NST near Mawpdang Mawkhanu was approved by the government last year.
He said the construction work for the new secretariat building will begin at the end of this financial year at a land which is close to 200 acres, which will take about four to five years.
The chief minister said shifting the government administration to the NST is a large plan and similarly there is a lot of plan and investment that needs to be put in into “zoning” the city.
“Whatever we are going to do in the NST we are trying to create many zones, like education, college zone, IT zone, industrial zone, a tech park,” he said, adding that the government is trying to create the education and the knowledge zone in Mawpdang area.
“We want to see that the brand and the image that Shillong used to have many years back as being a knowledge hub, we hope we will be able to achieve that in the coming years,” he added.
At a function to inaugurate the annexe building of the Meghalaya High Court, the Chief Minister said the government is moving at a fast pace to in order to shift some of the important locations like the cantonment board, jail, police reserve.
“We plan to have some kind of space wherever government spaces are available will be utilised. A full mapping has been done and we expect that in the next few months we will start multi-level parking in those areas and those will become critical infrastructures for the long-term planning of Shillong city,” the Chief Minister said.
