Case study

Walking Shillong on wheels

Iadalang Kharbangar uses a wheelchair. He filed 14 grievances last year. Here's what he found, and what we did.

Accessibility Cell

Shillong Municipal Board · 12 Jun 2026, 11:44 am IST · 5 min read

Iadalang Kharbangar lives in Laitumkhrah and works at a bank in Police Bazaar. He commutes 3.4 kilometres each way, in a manual wheelchair. Last year he filed fourteen grievances on ShillongOne. We invited him to walk the corridor with us.

What he showed us, in eight stops:

Anjalee Junction — kerb ramp present, but the gradient is 1:6. He needs help to climb it.

Cafe corner — paving slab missing on the east footpath. His wheel goes through the gap.

Laitumkhrah Main — parked taxis cover three of the four pedestrian build-outs.

Bus stop — boarding ramp not deployed. Drivers don't know where the button is.

Rilbong — six steps. No alternative route. He goes around the long way.

GS Road — works fine. Continuous, accessible, the standard we want.

Police Bazaar — works fine, but the toilet is non-functional.

Office — works fine.

Fourteen grievances, eight problems. We've fixed five, three are in progress, six are scheduled in the next thirty days.

Iadalang's verdict was kinder than we deserved: "ShillongOne is the first time anyone has read every one of my reports." We can do better than that. He shouldn't have to file fourteen reports to make a 3-kilometre commute.

— Accessibility Cell

Posted 12 Jun