Guwahati: Shillong's plans to get its own ropeway service received a shot in the arm after Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma announced an Rs 84-crore cable car project to be completed in the city within the next 18 months.
"Preliminary costing of the Shillong Ropeway is estimated at ₹84 Cr & we target to complete it within 18 months post the issue of work order. For Umiam Ropeway, formalities with land owners will be closed by Sept. 2020. Dept. to finish all formalities & ensure work starts soon," Sangma wrote in a tweet on September 7.
Although sources have indicated that the ropeway service is likely to operate between Shillong Peak and the vicinity of Tripura Castle in Cleve Colony, its location is yet to be finalized.
The project, conceptualized many years ago, is in the planning stage, and work on the ropeway service would begin once the location is finalized.
At the same time, a similar ropeway service planned across the Umiam Lake is also making progress on the ground with the state government all set to complete the formalities with landowners by the month-end.
"The concerned department will finish all formalities and ensure that work starts at the earliest," the chief minister stated.
This development has come merely days after a long-visualized ropeway was flagged off in neighbouring Assam's Guwahati. The long-pending Guwahati passenger ropeway project connecting the northern and southern banks of the Brahmaputra River was formally inaugurated on August 24.