Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said on Wednesday that the state government is actively working to revive the Shillong-Dawki road project by engaging new contractors. Acknowledging that the withdrawal of contractors from two or three packages of the road project has delayed the work, the Chief Minister shared that the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), has issued fresh tenders and reassigned the project to new contractors.
Speaking to media persons, the Chief Minister stated, “In the Shillong-Dawki road project, some contractors had withdrawn from certain packages. Recently, the Government of India and NHIDCL have retendered and reallotted the work to new contractors. While I don’t have the names of the new contractors at the moment, we had a review meeting with them about 10-15 days ago. The purpose was to assess their preparation and encourage them to push the work vigorously during this working season.”
He added, “We received positive responses from the contractors, and we expect the mobilization of machinery and manpower to happen very soon. The work on these roads should commence at full swing shortly.”
The Chief Minister highlighted various challenges faced during the project, including issues with forest clearance, utility shifting, problems with land acquisition, and opposition from certain communities. Meghalaya’s unique challenge lies in communal land ownership, making it a significant task to address in numerous areas. Despite these challenges, the government is optimistic about getting the Shillong-Dawki project back on track, the CM said.
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The review meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura.
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