Meghalaya: Union Cabinet Set to Approve Rs. 25,000 Crore Shillong-Silchar High-Speed Corridor

SHILLONG: The Union Cabinet is set to give approval to the construction of a 160-km high-speed corridor connecting Shillong with Silchar to be set up on a greenfield alignment at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore, making it one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the Northeast. The announcement is likely to be made shortly.

Once completed, the high-speed corridor would reduce the travel time between the two towns to around four hours and will also help ease travel between Assam, Mizoram, Manipur, and Tripura. The four-lane project was conceived in 2017 as part of the central government’s Bharatmala program. It is anticipated that the new route will accelerate the region’s economic growth.

According to sources, it will be the ideal remedy for the present problems that travelers have on their way to Silchar and other NE states, where poor road conditions and landslides—especially along the Sonapur-Ratacherra stretch—cause significant inconveniences.

According to sources, technical issues now prevent the expansion of highway connectivity between Shillong and Silchar. They emphasized that the optimum course of action in such a scenario is to construct a new highway alignment. Incidentally, the proposal for the high-speed corridor was placed by the Assam government before Prime Minister Narendra Modi for consideration in December last year.

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