CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG: In a significant step towards easing Shillong’s chronic traffic congestion, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Friday inaugurated the state’s first Automated Multilevel Car Park at Vivekananda Road near the Additional Secretariat, positioning it as part of a broader, long-term urban mobility strategy rather than a standalone solution.
Addressing the gathering at the inauguration, Sangma acknowledged traffic congestion as one of the city’s most persistent challenges and underlined the need for a comprehensive approach to address it. “A multi pronged strategy was developed to slowly and steadily decongest the city and to address the problems that lead to the problem of traffic and the multilevel car park that we are inaugurating today is just one part of the solution,” he said. Emphasizing that the initiative would be scaled up across the city, the chief minister said the government has nearly nine more multilevel car parks in the pipeline, collectively expected to create parking space for around 1,300 vehicles.
Highlighting policy-level interventions alongside infrastructure creation, Sangma pointed to the state’s parking policy, which allows private landowners to partner with the government to develop parking facilities while retaining revenue rights. He noted that unregulated roadside parking remains a major contributor to congestion. “Different aspects are being looked into and one of the factors that lead to traffic is because people park randomly,” he said, adding that the solution lies in providing adequate and designated parking spaces for motorists.
The chief minister further outlined a series of parallel measures being pursued to decongest the city, including the creation of dedicated parking spaces for public transport buses and taxis at Kyndailad, relocation of hawkers from busy roads, widening of the Umshyrpi to Seventh Mile stretch, and proposals for an elevated or four-lane road from Rhino Museum Point to Civil Hospital and Barik. He also reiterated the long-term impact of shifting key administrative offices to the New Administrative City. “All these proposals are at an advanced stage and are being taken up in a manner to ensure ease of traffic movement not only for immediate traffic relief but for the next few decades,” he said.
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