Shillong, May 20: Tourism minister Paul Lyngdoh has underlined the need for synergy and partnership between the state government, KHADC and Hima Mylliem for developing heritage tourism and cultural tourism as important ingredients of Iewduh, the oldest and largest traditional market in the North Eastern region.
Speaking to reporters, Lyngdoh said, “Possibilities are huge. This requires synergy, partnership and the core partners would be the state government, KHADC and Hima Mylliem. Once we are on the same page, we can look at heritage tourism, cultural tourism as important ingredients of Iewduh.”
He also termed the recent visit of the chief minister Conrad K Sangma to Iewduh market as a major step forward to connect with local entrepreneurs and vendors.
“We are happy that this has happened after a gap of several decades where the chief minister assisted by two other members of the cabinet had gone for an on-the-spot visit to Iewduh and interacted with diverse traders and shopkeepers and also all stakeholders, who benefit from Iewduh.”
Underscoring the need for a major facelift of Iewduh after several decades of neglect, Lyngdoh said, “We are happy that yesterday we made the announcement that apart from the Rs 6 crore investment in giving a facelift to the bazar, we have also decided to further augment our funding to another Rs 15 crore, meaning altogether an investment of Rs 21 crore immediately for improving the drainage system, infrastructure, power supply, water connection as a lot of water pipes are leaking – so this will go a long way in addressing the current situation where traders and shopkeepers faced a lot of difficulties in the course of day-to-day operations at Iewduh.”
“Some instructions have also been issued to the line departments, for instance the MeECL to immediately replace a few of the existing poles, which are in a dilapidated state. We expect that once the tender is out, we should be in a position to implement this project within the next three months,” he announced.
Asked, Lyngdoh said, “Yes, you are right to the extent that the Iewduh is under the administrative control of the KHADC and it belongs to the Hima Mylliem, but in this case since hundreds and thousands of people commute and sell their products to Iewduh and it also hosts hundreds of shopkeepers and vendors, we are left with no choice but to pitch in because of the bad state in which the market has deteriorated.”
“This is of course a kind of gesture and goodwill on the part of the government but we expect that the Hima Mylliem as well as KHADC will also do their bid in order to further alleviate the suffering of the people at Iewduh,” he added.
