Shillong, March 21: Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Tuesday said the status from Umshyrpi to Baniun, which is package-I of the Shillong-Dawki road project, is under retendering process.

Replying to a query raised by opposition Congress legislator from Mylliem Ronnie V Lyngdoh, Tynsong informed that the company concerned, which was allotted the work by the ministry, has surrendered halfway.

“In the month of March-April, 2022 I personally went to Delhi and met the secretary of the ministry and discussed at length on this issue based on which retendering was decided. However only 1 tender participated, they again retender the whole process and I am sure within the month of April, the process will be completed and work will resume,” Tynsong told the Assembly.

He further informed that shifting of utility is still going on and said, “We had series of meetings at my level and the level of the chief secretary where we monitor 24×7 as shifting process has to be completed as soon as possible by April 15.”

With regards to the package-5 and package 3 of the project, the deputy chief minister said, “For package-5, the process of retendering is in the final stage after the company has surrendered the work and for package-3, which is the bypass of Pynursla, the NHIDCL is still preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) after the land owners and traditional heads decided not to oppose the bypass.”

Lyngdoh, while raising supplementary query, expressed concern over the traffic congestion along the stretch of the road thereby affecting the residents of Upper Shillong and other parts and requested the government to instead speed up the construction of the proposed Western Bypass to ease the said problem to a great extent.

In his reply to this, the deputy chief minister informed that the status of the Western Bypass is in the stage of land proceeding, and said, “I am sure if everything goes well, within 3 months we will be able to handover the land to the concerned company so that they can start the work.”

When VPP legislator from Nongkrem Ardent M Basaiawmoit sought to know the action taken against the companies for surrendering the works halfway, Tynsong said though the tendering process is not under the control of the state PWD however the ministry had called the tender and work allotted but there were few conditions before signing final work order and one of them is “in case if they (company) fail or surrender the work, their security deposit will be forfeited”.

Meanwhile, the deputy chief minister further informed that the progress of package-2 stand at 37.7% and package-4 at 30.10%.

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