Oldest road in Meghalaya's Garo Hills region to be upgraded

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TURA:

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Saturday laid the base for the up-gradation of the 60 odd kilometre Rongram-Phulbari road at Rongram in West Garo Hills.

The Chief Minister laid the base in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong, Power Minister James Pangsang K Sangma, Advisor to the Chief Minister, Thomas A Sangma, Chairman of the Meghalaya Forest Development Corporation Limited, SG Esmatur Mominin and West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh.

The Rongram-Phulbari road is the oldest existing road in Garo Hills connecting the National Highway (NH) 51 in Rongram to NH 126 B in Phulbari.

The road provides critical access to the plain belt areas of Garo Hills during the monsoon when all other roads are inundated by floodwaters.

Five assembly constituencies and several Community & Rural Development (C&RD) Blocks of the district are connected via this road and, it is also the lifeline of the people of around forty odd villages.

The road is being upgraded into an intermediate lane with an estimate of 139 crore sanctioned under the State plan and is expected to be completed by December 2022.

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Addressing the gathering, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma praised the efforts of Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong, who also holds charge of PWD, in bringing to fruition the much-needed up-gradation of the oldest road in Garo Hills.

He informed that the State’s PWD department was acknowledged as the best performing department recently.

Speaking on recent violence against non-tribal labourers in the state, the Chief Minister urged upon the people to maintain peace to usher in progress.

He later directed the concerned officials to hold monthly site reviews to check the progress and ensure timely completion of the road.

Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said that the upgraded road will impact forty important villages in the hill and plain belt areas of Garo Hills.

Urging all stakeholders to work together to usher in progress, Tynsong said that the government was dedicated to bringing development to the people of the region.

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