Staff Reporter

Shillong, Aug 30: The cost for construction of the new Assembly building has now escalated to Rs 200 crore.

Informing this today, Assembly Speaker Thomas A. Sangma told reporters that certainly there is cost escalation and the revised estimate has already been approved by the High Powered Committee (HPC).

According to him, initially, the cost for the construction of the project was estimated at Rs 141.14 crore.

“Now the total cost has gone up to Rs 200 crore,” Sangma said.

He further justified that this is because there are so many technical issues involved and said, “The floor area was earlier smaller and now it has become bigger which justify the cost escalation also. It is not because of the time involved but cost was escalated because of the expansion of the structural area.”

The completion of the project has been delayed after the dome of the new Assembly building collapsed on May 22, last year.

On the status of the project, the Speaker said the progress is there although there are some technical issues which are unavoidable. However, the clearing of the debris (caused by the dome collapse incident) and the approval of the new dome design have all been completed.

“Now, the work has started and we are hopeful that the Assembly building will be completed within a year’s time,” he said while adding “Because of all those incidents that had happened because of hasty decisions, I don’t want to risk any more. Therefore, within a year, we should be able to complete it.”

He said that the construction of the new dome has already started. “It (new dome) is slightly modified but it is lighter unlike the earlier design which weighed around 3,000 metric tons but now that has been reduced considerably,” Sangma added.