Imphal: Manipur chief secretary Dr Vineet Joshi on Monday inspected the present status of the new state civil secretariat complex at Imphal East district’s Mantripukhri area whose construction has been halted owing to an order of Manipur High Court.
The construction work of the secretariat, which began in 2010 by the Simplex Projects Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata, was reassigned to Sri Avantika Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. in 2021 following failure to keep its commitment by the former. It is reported that Simplex completed nearly 65 percent of the work.
After two-and-half- year of execution by the Avantika, the project was again cancelled by the government for similar reasons with about 75-85 percent of whole construction project completed.
According to a deal with the government, Avantika was supposed to complete the remaining construction of the complex within a year of taking over.
With a prayer to allow them to complete the work, Avantika 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 High Court of Manipur, Dr Joshi, along with Chief Engineer (CE) of Manipur Public Works Department (PWD), Ningombam Subhash and other officials of the department, visited the site. The 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.
The CE revealed 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.
Ningombam added that the ministers’ block is the strongest of the three buildings that are all earthquake resistant.
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, Ningombam said, adding that the civil secretariat is part of the Capitol project of the state government.
The other two components of the Capitol project which had already been completed and functional include Manipur Legislative Assembly at Chingmeirong, High Court of Manipur at the nearby Sangakpham area in the same district.
In April this year, 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 Babupara, in Imphal city.
The next hearing of the petition which followed a petition filed by Sri Avantika Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd is scheduled on November 2.
