SHILLONG:
Another day, another target. The state government has put forth a new deadline for completion of the new Assembly building before the end of 2023, informed Deputy Chief Minister in-charge PWD (Buildings) Prestone Tynsong.
Tynsong said construction is going on and the final approval of the new dome design is awaited from the two Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) – IIT Roorkee and IIT Guwahati.
“Once the approval is done by these two IITs, we will go ahead with the construction of the new design,” he added.
The dome of the under-construction new building of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly had collapsed on May 22, 2023.
On March 13, Assembly Speaker Thomas A Sangma had conducted an inspection of the construction site. At the time, he stated that implementing agencies had been asked to remove the debris from the collapse by April 15.
“That was the only deadline we have set today, without which the work cannot start; without the approval of the new design work cannot start. Only when the work starts then we can set a [final] timeline [for completion of the new Assembly building],” he had said.
Stating that the progress of work was found satisfactory, Sangma informed that the left and right wings of the new building were almost complete.
Earlier, suspecting shoddy construction and flouting of building guidelines, demands were made by several quarters for the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct a probe into the dome’s collapse.