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.”

Stories of a Shillong boy Part 1: Hill Boy and the Desert

There is a little 10 year old boy in Shillong who has a funny way of looking at things. I call him “Ray” – A named derived from his Khasi first name. I am his mother and this is one of the many stories I have about him.

Now Ray had an intense hate for two subjects in school – science and geography. I’m still drawing nonsensical circles around science, but I think I’ve cracked geography and a geography lesson is one of the most fun things we do together now. I want to talk about a lesson we did a little while ago.

In this lesson, we read about the Thar Desert. The book said something really scary to Ray. It told him that the desert is expanding because we cut down forests and let our cattle eat away all our grasslands. This really worried him. Before we could go on with the lesson, he said, “But I don’t want the desert to reach the Meghalaya.”

I looked at him and said, “It won’t.”

“But the book says that it will.” He insists. “I don’t want to live in a desert.”

I had to think for a bit. See Ray has this way of getting fixated on something and then he dwells on it – a reason why I tutor him myself by redoing every chapter that his teachers have taught in school. His head is full of questions that he would never ask in a classroom kind of space, but he would demand an answer out of me.

“It will not happen tomorrow Ray.” I said, “We’ll all be dead and gone by then. There is no need to stress.”

This did not put him at ease at all. He was worried. “I don’t want to live in India anymore if the desert is growing mei. We have to leave India.”

“There are deserts everywhere.” I said.

“This can happen all over the world?” he asked sounding completely helpless.

“Yes.” I said thinking of Mad Max Fury Road. “But it won’t happen anytime soon. It will probably happen during the time of your great great great great grandchild so you have nothing to worry about.”

This calmed him down for a little while and I was able to finish the lesson. He had his dinner after that, brushed his teeth and got into bed.

As I was tucking him in he said softly, “But I want my great great great great grand son or daughter to live also.”

And it suddenly struck me that even I want my great great great great great grandchild to live.

(This piece has been written by Dalariti Nongpiur with illustrations by Hazel Kharkongor)