Williamnagar

Williamnagar is the headquarters of East Garo Hills district and is a planned administrative town that expanded with the reorganisation of Garo Hills governance. The broader Garo Hills district was historically administered with Tura as a key centre; later administrative restructuring created separate districts to bring governance closer to local communities.

A key milestone was the creation of East Garo Hills as a district: the East Garo Hills district with headquarters at Williamnagar was created in 1976 and began functioning as a full-fledged district in 1977. The town itself was named after Captain Williamson A. Sangma, Meghalaya’s first Chief Minister, and developed with a township-style headquarters complex.

Geographically, Williamnagar lies near the Simsang river system, and it grew as an administrative, educational, and service centre for surrounding rural areas in eastern Garo Hills. Over time, continued regional reorganisation also affected its administrative landscape—for example, East Garo Hills was later reorganised further to form a new district out of the erstwhile Resubelpara sub-division in 2012.