GUWAHATI: Manipur chief secretary Vineet Joshi, on Monday (October 23), inspected the present status of the new state civil secretariat complex at Imphal East district’s Mantripukhri area, whose construction work has been halted, owing to an order of the Manipur high court.
The construction work of the secretariat, which began in 2010 by the Simplex Projects Private Limited, a Kolkata-based construction firm, was reassigned to Sri Avantika Infrastructure Private Limited in 2021 following failure to keep its commitment by the former.
It is reported that Simplex Projects Private Limited completed nearly 65 per cent of the construction work.
After two-and-half- year of execution by Sri Avantika Infrastructure Private, the project was again cancelled by the Manipur government for similar reasons with about 75-85 per cent of whole construction work completed.
According to a deal with the Manipur government, Sri Avantika Infrastructure Private Limited was supposed to complete the remaining construction work of the secretariat complex within a year of taking over.
With a prayer to allow them to complete the work, Sri Avantika Infrastructure Private Limited moved the same court, and since the matter is pending in the court, construction has been halted till the court gives its final verdict.
Coinciding with the appointment of Justice Siddharth Mridul on Friday as the Chief Justice of the Manipur high court, state chief secretary Joshi along with chief engineer of Manipur Public Works Department (PWD) Ningombam Subhash and other officials of the department visited the site.
The Manipur chief secretary exuded confidence that the civil secretariat building would soon be completed. He inspected rooms in the north, south and ministers’ blocks and the three core components of the new civil secretariat.
Manipur PWD chief engineer Subhash said that the north and south blocks will house offices of bureaucrats, while ministers and elected representatives, who officiate public sector undertakings, will occupy offices in the ministers’ block.
The chief engineer added that the ministers’ block is the strongest of the three buildings that are all earthquake resistant.
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Explaining the layout of the building, he said the civil secretariat would have its own sewage treatment plant and an ancillary block for the maintenance staff, security personnel, chowkidars, canteen and offices for banks.
Disaster management department and the information technology-based departments like IT data centre, NIC would occupy the ground floor, chief engineer Subhash said, adding that the civil secretariat is part of the Capitol project of the Manipur government.
The other two components of the Capitol project which had already been completed and functional include the Manipur Legislative Assembly at Chingmeirong, high court of Manipur at the nearby Sangakpham area in the same district.
In April this year, the Manipur high court had asked the state government to complete the construction work of the new secretariat to decongest traffic in the areas where the civil secretariat is currently located at Imphal’s Babupara area.
The next hearing of the petition which followed a petition filed by Sri Avantika Infrastructure Private Limited is scheduled on November 2 this year.