Meghalaya Tourism department to up the ante; 1st of its kind ropeway project soon

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 15: Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh has informed that his department will try to upscale the level of tourism in the state.

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“…most importantly, the focus will not be on footfalls, not on the numbers of tourists who are visiting Meghalaya but more on the quality of tourists visiting Meghalaya meaning that the success of the department will not be viewed in terms of how many arrivals but generally we will try to upscale the level of tourists in Meghalaya,” Lyngdoh told reporters.

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He said there is a need to enhance the infrastructures in the state in order to achieve this objective to upscale the tourism industry in the state.

“To do that, we need to enhance our infrastructure and this is linked to various other departments. I am sure that under the able leadership of Conrad K Sangma, this will be possible and we will be in a position to optimize the potential of Meghalaya as a tourism destiny,” he said.

The state government and the tourism department have proposed to implement the first of its kind ropeway project at Shillong viewpoint.

When asked about the status of the project, Lyngdoh said, “These are ongoing projects and hopefully we will be in a position to physically open to the public in the next six months’ time.”

“Work has already started. I mean a lot of work which you don’t see physically – land issues and stuff like that which have already been handled. The physical execution should be visible max six months from today,” he added.

If the government is contemplating to implement similar projects in other parts of the state, the minister however said, “Right away all I can state is that we are in the process of finalizing the state budget so depending on the budget allocation of the department of tourism, depending upon on central funds that will be made available, depending on externally aided projects, cumulatively this will work into how much we strengthen our infrastructure, ropeways or whichever ways.”

Asked on the steps to be taken to protect the caves, which are one of the main tourist attractions, from the negative impact of coal mining in the state, Lyngdoh said, “We will go out of our way to ensure preservation and maintenance of these caves. That is the policy of the government and that is the policy that I am going to adopt. How to do it, leave it to the wisdom of the minister in-charge and the government of the day.”

Lyngdoh concluded by saying “Leaving aside initiatives, what we need most is focus, prioritization. Have your priorities, have your focus, everything else will fall into place.”