The Meghalaya government has proposed to spend more than Rs 2,500 crore for the construction of the much-awaited administrative city at the New Shillong township.
Informing this at a function held in Shillong on February 7, chief minister Conrad Sangma said the planned administrative city is coming up very soon in Mawdiangdiang side.
“It is a project that is going to be worth more than Rs 2,500 crore if you were to include everything from road connectivity, water supply and the building infrastructure,” he said.
The CM said that he had recently taken a representation of the designs of the administrative city and he would soon present the same before the state cabinet.
“Once those designs are approved by the cabinet, we should be able to tender out the works after the DPRs are made by the end of the second quarter of 2024-2025,” Sangma said while adding that he is hoping within the present term, the government would be able to shift the secretariat part, if not all the directorates, to the new administrative city.
The chief minister said that the idea is to bring governance and overall services to the public under one roof or one campus so that people can go to one location and get all the kinds of different services and all the help that they require. “That’s really the vision in which we are working,” he said.
Further, chief minister Sangma informed that the government has also sanctioned Rs 100 crore for the construction of three roads leading to the new administrative city, the foundation stones of which were laid recently.
“The tenders are already out and work should start in about a couple of months. We are expecting that within the next financial year, all three roads are ready that will lead to the New Shillong township so that the infrastructural work for the actual secretariat can be facilitated by the roads that are going to be constructed,” he also said.
The CM said the government is not trying to do things on a piecemeal basis.
“We have a larger and a bigger plan for the city and we are really working on a long-term, medium-term and short-term kind of road to see how we can improve the overall living conditions in the city of Shillong. While we are working on that long-term and larger project which I am sure will lead to a large development for the decongestion of Shillong city, there are small things we need to do to really improve things,” he added.
