Shillong, June 5: Minister in-charge Tourism Paul Lyngdoh on Monday said the government has decided to implement the Shillong ropeway project based on the ‘European standard’.

Lyngdoh told reporters that he had met three senior officers of the Switzerland government to discuss this matter during his visit to the country recently.

“The objective of the visit to Switzerland was to facilitate the start of the Shillong ropeway project which is an ambitious project of Rs 140 crore funded by the Asian Development Bank,” he said.

Stating that the Shillong ropeway project will be one of largest ropeway projects in North East India, Lyngdoh said, “We expect very heavy footfall of tourists and tourism will emerge as the single biggest employment avenue for people here in Meghalaya.”

According to him, on an average in Sohra, where previously a house owner would earn Rs 3,000 per month as rent, today is earning Rs 3,000 per room per day.

“So the visit came about (after) first we got the invitation from the local government of Switzerland. We had met three senior officers of the local government and the whole intention was that we would like to implement this project based on what is called the European standard. Why the European standard? Because one, our affinity in terms of climatic condition and two, the topography,” the minister said.

Reacting to the allegation that he was shying away to talk about the issue of reservation policy, Lyngdoh said, “I could not have cancelled these meetings on the ground that there is somebody staging a hunger strike in Shillong so I have to rush back and cancel these engagements which were cleared by the Ministry of External Affairs.”

Further informing that the project will take off by August, this year, the tourism minister said, “We will start the tendering process and hopefully by December, we should be able to start work on the ground and it will take us two years plus to complete it.”