Govt feasibility study to examine pros and cons of railway project: Paul

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJuly 12, 2023

Cabinet minister and spokesperson of the MDA government Paul Lyngdoh on Wednesday said the state government’s decision to conduct a feasible study to bring railway line to East Jaintia Hills is to examine the pros and cons of the project.

“The feasible study itself means that you first study the pros and cons, the merits and demerits. So the fact that the government had announced that they will conduct the feasibility study would also mean that the concerns of the various groups will be addressed in that study,” Lyngdoh told reporters.

He was responding to a query on the stiff opposition from anti-influx groups against the government’s move to bring the railway line up to Khliehriat, the district headquarters of East Jaintia Hills.

“First you have to make a very fine distinction between goods train and passengers train, two you also have to take the ecology into consideration what would be the impact on the ecosystem and three you take into account things like the whether it will cause any imbalance in population and encourage illegal immigration – those are core parameters that will ideally be part of this study that you referred to,” Lyngdoh said.