Meghalaya had a date with history on Friday when the state’s first 5-star hotel — Taj Vivanta, Shillong — was inaugurated, bringing to an end a 36-year wait for residents of the city.

Chief Minister Conrad Sangma inaugurated the hotel, previously called Crowborough.

Proposed in the 1980s, the hotel has been in the news for over three decades for all the wrong reasons, having suffering innumerable delays along the way.