Shillong, Dec. 6: For a dreamer wishing to romance the clouds, there lies a perfect walk in the sky, overlooking the verdant plains of Bangladesh.

Moving beyond mere dreams, Meghalaya, the abode of clouds, is drumming up schemes to gladden the hearts of tourists.

The state government is fructifying plans to develop Mawlynnong, dubbed Asia's cleanest village, and neighbouring Riwai village under Pynursla block in East Khasi Hills, in a bid to transform this dream into reality.

If Mawlynnong is the proud bearer of the tag 'cleanest village', Riwai is home to a living-root bridge and a skywalk made of bamboo where one can view the plains of neighbouring Bangladesh. Both the villages are around 90km from here and share a proximity with the international border.

Yesterday, chief minister Mukul Sangma took time to visit the two villages, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, to spend time with the local residents and announced plans to develop these hamlets. Sangma also took a walk across the famous living-root bridge at Riwai and the newly constructed skywalk. Border areas development minister Prestone Tynsong and others accompanied him.

Inaugurating the River Valley Eco Park at Riwai, the chief minister congratulated the people of the village for initiating community action.

He also shared his plan of associating Riwai and Mawlynnong with other tribal-dominated villages of the country where they would have exchange programmes to learn about each other's way of life. 'This will be a learning experience for all of us, a kind of exchange of ideas, and that itself will put these villages on the global map,' Sangma said.

The River Valley Eco Park is a community asset, and has been created on a land measuring about seven acres. Among others, the park includes a skywalk constructed with cane and bamboo overlooking the plains of Bangladesh.

On the skywalk, the chief minister said, 'It is an outcome of a creative mind.'

At Mawlynnong, the chief minister was impressed by the creativity and the natural way that the villagers had maintained their village.

'You have blended your way of life with the creation of God, which is a sign of your gratitude to the Creator,' he said.

'Mawlynnong is known for wonderful things. You have shown what a village should be like and you have shown how a village is capable of transforming the way we live,' he said.

'I am sure the children of Mawlynnong would not want to leave this place and go to overcrowded cities. But in order to make them remain in the village, we must be able to create more opportunities,' he added.

To attract high-end tourists to Mawlynnong, Sangma requested the people to identify land where the government can construct a take-off and landing facility for small aircraft. He also suggested that Mawlynnong could host a tourism summit on promoting eco-tourism, village and rural tourism.

Earlier, addressing a gathering at Pynursla, about 49km from here, to bring down the curtains on the golden jubilee celebrations of Raid Shabong Border Area government upper primary school, Sangma proposed that a workshop on tourism could be held at Pynursla early next year.'Now that we have attracted tourists by putting Mawlynnong on the global tourism map, it's time to put Pynursla-Mawlynnong-Dawki on the tourism circuit,' he said.

He also proposed a workshop on tourism in January in the Pynursla area where it can be planned to promote the area as a tourist destination. The chief minister also urged the people to identify land where a college could be set up for the benefit of students hailing from Pynursla and the neighbouring areas.