Govt wants to turn Khyndailad into a pedestrian zone

Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh today said that the state government is committed to declaring Khyndailad a pedestrian zone.

“Our commitment will be to have at least one pedestrian zone immediately and that is Khyndailad. I also had a meeting with the Chief Minister and he is fully in line with the need to declare Khyndailad as a pedestrian zone,” Lyngdoh told reporters.

He said some access to local residents which will be on the basis of car passes will be issued but the entire area will be pedestrianized.

He said that the people who suffered most in Shillong are pedestrians as you have hawkers, you have motorists using every way and there is limited scope for people to walk around.

The minister further informed that they have already started declaration of parts of Shillong as no-honking zones.

“We are in the process. The district administration and the police are in constant touch and from the tourism department, we already started by declaring Orchid, Umiam as a no-honking zone and similarly, other units of the tourism department will also be declared as no honking zones because the USP of Meghalaya is the serenity, the quiet which is disturbed by loud honking and loud music which sometimes carries beyond permissible hours,” he added.

Shillong ropeway project to start in Nov

Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh today said construction of the Shillong ropeway project will start by November, this year.

Lyngdoh told reporters that he had recently held a meeting to discuss this important project, the Shillong ropeway project.

He said the project starts from the terminal point at Madan Laban towards Lumparing and to the viewpoint of Shillong Peak and “we will have 12 cables initially and the engineering will be done as per European standards.”

“We will be floating tenders in the month of May and likely the work will start by November of this year,” he added.

The minister also informed that he had visited the Orchid Resort, Mawkasiang and a few areas that need further enhancement and that along with officials of the tourism department, we will be initiating a few major interventions in the project.

He further informed that the Department of Tourism along with Asian Development Bank will be initiating new projects and to begin with Shillong and Sohra circuits will each get funding of Rs 70 crore and these projects have been initiated.