Meghalaya government orders probe into multi-crore road scam

Guwahati: The Meghalaya government has initiated a police investigation into an alleged scam involving contractors and state engineers in the construction of a key road project.

The alleged scam, worth over Rs 2,300 crore, has implicated nine individuals, including senior engineers from the state government and officials from two private companies based in Telangana and Haryana.

The road project, approved in 2010 as part of the central government's Special Road Development Programme-North East, aimed to connect the state capital Shillong with Tura via Nongstoin and Rongjeng.

Initially valued at Rs 1303.83 crore, the project's cost was revised multiple times, eventually ballooning to Rs 2366.77 crore. The original completion deadline was 2014.

The accused include officials from the private companies, the then PWD chief engineer, the executive engineer, and others. The FIR was filed by PWD (NH) Chief Engineer Almond M. Kharmawphlang, who relied on information from ongoing arbitration proceedings conducted by the Arbitral Tribunal.

According to the FIR, officials and engineers colluded with contractors to cheat, defraud, and fabricate records, resulting in significant losses to the public exchequer.