NSTDA Notice: Additional Land Invited for CRPF Camp in New Shillong Township (August 2025)

What was decided

The New Shillong Township Development Agency (NSTDA) issued a public notice, dated 8 August 2025 and numbered NSTDA/Estt/4/2018/232-A, proposing to procure additional land specifically for a CRPF camp. The notice states the agency proposes to procure additional land specifically for the purpose of setting up of a CRPF Camp, in addition to the already acquired land at Mawkhanu, Mawpdang, Mawdiangdiang, Umsawli and Tynring.

This is a land-procurement invitation, not a completed acquisition. NSTDA is asking private landowners to come forward and offer land for sale; it is not itself notifying an acquisition under statute at this stage.

Who could apply, and on what terms

Interested land owners, preferably owning land contiguous to the existing land already acquired and in the vicinity of the Shillong Diengpasoh Road, Ummir junction to Shillong By-Pass etc who desire to sell the land may submit their proposals along with attested Photo Copy of land documents, survey map of the plot as well as offered rates (Sealed Envelope) to the office of the undersigned on or before 8th September 2025.

Two criteria were set out for eligible plots: the plot should be in and around Mawkhanu, Mawpdang, Mawdiangdiang, Umsawli, Tynring etc., should be easily approachable from the Main Road/By Pass etc., and should be more or less 10 (Ten) acres.

The notice was also directed for publication: the Director of Information & Public Relation, Meghalaya, Shillong, was requested to arrange publication of the Notice in one issue of two leading local newspapers.

Media confirmation

Local press reported on the notice about ten days after issuance. The Shillong Times reported that the New Shillong Township Development Agency (NSTDA) has proposed to procure additional land in New Shillong Township specifically for the purpose of setting up a CRPF camp. It added that the agency urged interested landowners, preferably owning land in the vicinity of the Shillong-Diengpasoh Road, Ummir Junction to Shillong Bypass etc., to submit proposals before September 8, for around ten acres of land in and around Mawkhanu, Mawpdang, Mawdiangdiang, Umsawli, and Tynring.

Background: why a fresh land search for the CRPF camp

This is not the first attempt to fix a CRPF camp site in New Shillong Township. In September 2022, the state government had already handed over an allotment letter for land for this purpose. Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said the government had decided and handed over the allotment of 10 acres of land in the New Shillong township area next to IIM for the CRPF to have a permanent camp in the State of Meghalaya.

That 2022 site ran into local resistance before it could be formalised. Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Home (Police) Prestone Tynsong told the Assembly that in May 2022 the government was about to earmark 10 acres of land in New Shillong township, but before the MoU was signed, some localities raised strong opposition to a CRPF camping site. This history of opposition to the earlier earmarked plot is the likely reason NSTDA went back to the open market in August 2025 to source an alternative or additional site.

The named villages — Mawkhanu, Mawpdang, Mawdiangdiang, Umsawli and Tynring — are also the same cluster where NSTDA has run other land-procurement notices for New Shillong Township's larger flagship projects. A March 2024 NSTDA notice recorded that the agency had already acquired land at Mawdiangdiang, Mawkasiang, Umsawli for the proposed Administrative City and at Mawkhanu, Mawpdang for the proposed Knowledge City, and proposed to acquire additional land to serve as a corridor between the two. Separately, the Urban Affairs Department has been allotted 229.724 acres in New Shillong Township at Mawdiangdiang for the Administrative Complex, and has acquired 807.7 acres at Mawkhanu for the Knowledge City covering tourism, hospitality, music, sports, IT and agriculture.

Practical effect

The August 2025 notice does not itself create a CRPF camp or transfer any land. Its practical effect is to open a window — closing 8 September 2025 — for private owners of contiguous, road-accessible land near Mawkhanu, Mawpdang, Mawdiangdiang, Umsawli and Tynring to voluntarily offer roughly 10 acres for sale to NSTDA at rates of their own quoting, submitted in sealed proposals with land documents and survey maps.

If NSTDA finalises purchase terms with willing sellers, the resulting parcel would add to the land bank NSTDA already holds in this cluster and would be earmarked for a permanent CRPF camp — potentially resolving the site question that stalled after the 2022 allotment attempt met local objection. As of this notice, no acquisition, rate, or specific plot had been finalised; only the invitation to offer land had been issued.