Ministry ask Meghalaya to implement railway project or surrender Rs. 200 Cr sanctioned to state

Shillong, Jan 22: The state government has been asked to surrender over Rs 200 crore sanctioned by the Centre if the issue related to the land acquisition for the implementation of two railway projects in the Khasi Hills region is not resolved at the earliest.

Informing this on Wednesday, chief minister Conrad K Sangma said, “I have met the railway minister and he has expressed concern about the railway projects at Byrnihat as well at Shillong. I have made it amply clear to him in that meeting that we need to take the stakeholders into confidence and without doing that it would not be proper for us to bulldoze on a subject like this. I have always stressed on taking the community and the people on board while going for a major decision like this.”

It may be mentioned that the Centre has proposed two railways projects in the state– the 22-km Tetelia-Byrnihat tracks and the 108-km Byrnihat-Shillong line.

The Tetelia-Byrnihat project will be implemented at a cost of Rs 496 crore. However, these projects have faced roadblocks due to strong opposition from different quarters apprehending influx.

Sangma further informed, “The minister has mentioned…he will be writing a letter to me very soon that within 3 or 6 months time if this issue is not resolved one way or the other then the Rs 200 crore money he has given for land acquisition that has been lying with the DC since 2017, that money will be asked back, so we will have to give back that money, which obviously we will have to and secondly more importantly this project will be cancelled and the government will take up the other projects if other states in the region are keen.”

“I have requested him (minister) to give us some time to discuss but the time limit is very limited. He did not give me the exact months but he has said in few months that he would be writing to me very soon and he said if necessary he himself would come and have a meeting with the stakeholders to discuss the importance of this and we will see how we will take it forward,” he said adding “As I said he has given a very strong message and indication to me that if we are not able to move forward this particular project which runs into thousands of crores and which has huge economic impact for our state will have to be cancelled.”

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