The study aimed to develop development plans for ten villages in Meghalaya, located in the Khasi Hills on remote mountain tops with very limited access to public infrastructure. As part of this project, each village was analyzed based on its social fabric and physical structure. Based on site inferences, INDE recognized that introducing these villages to the tourism industry required a carefully designed approach to prevent the indiscriminate disruption of their ecologically and socially fragile local fabric.

The proposed projects ensured that the embedded linkages of individual villages were connected to the larger regional context in terms of administration, ecology, and historical evolution. The investment plan identified specific projects and programs to strengthen existing cultural, livelihood, and social linkages while using tourism as a catalyst. INDE conducted the study as a consultant to iDeck, with funding provided by the Meghalaya Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation.