Meghalaya Govt to introduce first passenger ropeway in Shillong

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaSeptember 7, 2022

The state cabinet on Wednesday approved the Meghalaya Ropeway Bill, 2022. 

Speaking to reporters, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said, “The very important Meghalaya Ropeway Bill, 2022 was cleared today by the cabinet and this will be placed in the upcoming (autumn session of the) Assembly.”

He said the Bill is basically to lay down the procedures for different passenger/tourist ropeways that are expected to come up in the state.

Sangma said that Rs 140 crore was sanctioned for the Shillong Peak ropeway, which is the first passenger ropeway in the state through the New Development Bank.

“We expect that we should be calling the tender for this ropeway in the next 15-30 days’ time,” he said.

The chief minister said the Bill will give a proper structure on how applications can be made for ropeways and what are the different procedures to be followed in setting up of ropeways, the different bodies that will be in place which will give necessary licenses and permissions and what are the different safety measures that have to be taken adding “all these are being put in the Bill and this will ensure that standard procedure is set in place keeping in mind the overall safety of the tourists and the citizens who will be using the different ropeways.”

The chief minister said that the purpose of coming up with the Bill for now is to promote tourism in the state as he assured “slowly we will expand this and incorporate the urban transportation even for goods transportation and all other forms of ropeways that may be required in the future.”

According to him, it took the government almost 2 years to work on the passenger/tourist ropeway project for Shillong.

“We have faced a large number of hurdles be it clearances, be it finance, be it legislations that have to be done. This process has taken us a long time but we are now finally at a point where we have taken the necessary permissions from everywhere to finalize the location and now the Bill will also be passed and become an Act,” he added.