Shillong, Nov 4: Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma has a simple diagnosis for Shillong’s traffic jam: the city keeps creating no-parking zones, but no parking zones.
Inaugurating two new multilevel car parks at Mawkhar and Motphran on Wednesday, Sangma said piecemeal fixes like one-ways and parking bans will never work.
“Making one-way roads or stopping parking at one place cannot be a permanent solution. To find a solution, we must know why the problem is happening,” he said.
Built under the Shillong Smart City Mission for Rs 38.92 crore, the two facilities will free up space for around 200 vehicles in two of the city’s most congested pockets.
Sangma said the government studied Shillong’s traffic for over a year using drones, satellite imagery and vehicle counts. The big takeaway: “If you want to stop somebody from parking somewhere, you have to give that person the option to park somewhere else.”
The government is now hunting for more government, community and private land to build additional parking under a wider mobility plan.
He added that shifting the Secretariat to the new Administrative City next year will also take a huge load off the city centre.
Sangma also said the government supports festivals of all faiths without discrimination — “We are not here to promote any religion. We are here to support our people” — and urged citizens to gear up for the National Games next year to show the country Meghalaya’s warmth and hospitality.
