Shillong, Oct 8: The Central government has shifted the responsibility to the Meghalaya government to complete all PMGSY roads that were not completed for many years in the state.

However, the Centre has also sanctioned around Rs 172 crore under PMGSY to upgrade all state roads in Meghalaya.

Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong told reporters that another amount in between Rs 250 crore and Rs 300 crore is in the pipeline to come to Meghalaya for upgradation of state roads and for this, Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) have been prepared and sent to IIT Guwahati.

“The target is to upgrade around 3,000 km state roads under PMGSY,” he said.

At the same time, Tynsong informed that pending PMGSY projects in the state that could not be completed many years ago, have been transferred to the state government to complete them and the state has to bear the cost.

On the slow pace in the implementation of PMGSY in the state, Tynsong said that from phase-I to phase-IV, the delay was due to absence of consultants in the preparation of DPRs, and the engineers of the state PWD prepared the DPRs without detail survey in the ground.

Tynsong informed that all pending PMGSY projects were transferred to the state government by the Centre to complete all uncompleted projects that have been pending for many years.

He also said that another problem that led to the slow implementation of PMGSY projects was the land problem. “Due to land problem, we have to even abandon a number of projects.”

He also said that the PMGSY scheme has no component of compensation to be paid to land owners for land acquisition.

However Tynsong informed that by 2020, things would improve and the implementation of PMGSY projects would be seen in the ground.

Nongstoiñ-Wahkaji road:

Meanwhile Tynsong slammed the decision of the KHADC not to issue NOC for construction of the two-lane Nongstoiñ-Wahkaji road.

Tynsong said that the KHAC chief executive member, H.S. Shylla should have instead waited for further consultation with the stakeholders along with the state government in connection with the proposed road projects.

Tynsong said that he along with Chief Minister, Conrad K. Sangma had taken up the project with Union Minister for MoRTH, Nitin Gadkari recently and convinced the Centre to delete the route to Mawthabah and Domïasiat and the two-lance road should instead be from Nongstoiñ to Wahkaji, and proceed to Phlangdiloiñ and Ranikor without going to Mawthabah and Domïasiat.

“If they are not clear, the door is always open for discussion with the state government,” Tynsong said.

He also informed that the road project was initiated under the SARDP (North East) and there was nothing to fear as it would not lead the uranium area.

Allaying fears that there is a move to mine uranium, Tynsong said that the chance to mine uranium is not there since both the KHADC and State government have already made their clear stand to say no to uranium mining.

“When a decision has been taken against uranium mining, what is the problem, I could not understand. If you don’t trust the government and the KHADC, then what shall we do,” he asked.

Stating that District Councils and the State government have to work together, Tynsong said that the state government or district council should work for the benefit of somebody but for the people.