Shillong, March 21: Hurdles are far from over for the Shillong-Dawki road project.
Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Tuesday said the status from Umshyrpi to Baniun, which is package-I of the Shillong-Dawki road project, is under retendering.
In reply to a question by Congress legislator from Mylliem Ronnie V Lyngdoh, Tynsong informed the Assembly that the company entrusted with the work surrendered halfway.
“In the month of March-April, 2022 I personally went to Delhi and met the secretary of the ministry and discussed at length on this issue based on which retendering was decided. However only 1 tender participated, they again retendered the whole process and I am sure within the month of April, the process will be completed and work will resume,” Tynsong said.
He said shifting of utilities is still going on. “We had series of meetings at my level and the level of the chief secretary where we monitor 24×7 as shifting process has to be completed as soon as possible by April 15”, he said.
On package-5 and package-3 of the project, the deputy chief minister said, “For package-5, the process of retendering is in the final stage after the company has surrendered the work and for package-3, which is the bypass of Pynursla, the NHIDCL is still preparing the detailed project report (DPR) after the land owners and traditional heads decided not to oppose the bypass.”
Ronnie, while raising supplementary questions, expressed concern over the traffic congestion along the stretch of the road thereby affecting the residents of Upper Shillong and other parts.
He urged the government to speed up the construction of the proposed Western Bypass to ease the problem.
In his reply, the deputy chief minister said the status of the Western Bypass is in the stage of land acquisition and added, “I am sure if everything goes well within 3 months, we will be able to handover the land to the concerned company so that they can start the work.”
VPP legislator from Nongkrem Ardent M Basaiawmoit wanted to know the action taken against the companies for surrendering the works halfway,
Tynsong replied that though the tendering process is not under the control of the state PWD, the ministry had called the tender and work was allotted but there were a few conditions before signing final work order and one of them is in case if the companies fail or surrender the work, their security deposit will be forfeited.
Tynsong informed that the progress of package-2 stands at 37.7% and package-4 at 30.10%.
