Shillong Oct 20: The widening work on the Shillong – Dawki National Highway (NH-40) by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHICDL) at Upper Shillong has stumbled upon another problem as the Kurkalang (Kseh) clan on Wednesday morning staged a protest against the construction of the four-lane project claiming that some parts of the areas projected for the widening work belong to the clan since pre-independence era.Egenstar Kurkalang, the clan secretary, said the clan will keep on protesting as long as the Government does not meet with their demand of paying for the land used for the project at Upper Shillong. “The whole world knows, the British government knows, even the Indian Government knows that this is our land since time immemorial,” he said.

“We demand for what is ours… if the Government does not pay for the land used in this project… We will never allow for this project to continue,” added Egenstar.

Clan Chief Joken Kurkalang said the clan has been writing petitions after petitions to the government but their cries were not heard, therefore, they have to protest against the government. “If the government keeps on ignoring our demand, we will go to the extreme,” Joken added.

Shillong – Dawki Road Expansion Project

The National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHICDL) has been tasked with the widening of the National Highway-40 from Shillong to Tamabil that links Meghalaya with Bangladesh. The road project is being funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to the tune of Rs 1,251 crore. The project has a completion deadline of December 2023.

NHIDCL has divided it into four packages which have been awarded to various agencies.
Package 1 includes an 11 km four-lane road that has been allotted to SS Infrazone Pvt. Ltd at Rs 91.26 crore. The road will be converted to four-lane from Umshyrpi Bridge in Shillong to Bañiun at 7th Mile, Upper Shillong.