Shillong’s battle against traffic gridlock got new firepower on Wednesday, with two multilevel car parks opening in Mawkhar and Motphran, two of the city’s most congested localities.Buy Maps
Built at ₹38.92 crore under the Shillong Smart City Mission, the facilities can hold 200 vehicles.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who inaugurated them in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar, said earlier efforts fell short because “while we are creating no-parking zones, we are not creating parking zones.”
The two facilities are the District School Education Office-cum-Multilevel Car Park at Mawkhar and a fully mechanised Multilevel Car Park at Motphran.
The government spent over a year and a half on a mobility study using drones, satellite images and vehicle counts. “If you want to stop somebody from parking somewhere, you have to give that person the option to park somewhere else,” he said.
That led the government to look for government, community and private land. The lot beside the Additional Secretariat was the first such facility; Mawkhar and Motphran are the second.