SHILLONG, June 5: The Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) is learnt to have objected to the height of the dome of the new Assembly building at Mawdiangdiang in the New Shillong Township before it was installed.
The steel dome collapsed last month.
Official sources on Sunday said MUDA had advised against the installation of the dome as Meghalaya is in seismic Zone V, which is prone to earthquakes. The authority had also suggested the removal of the dome from the original design of the new Assembly building, they added.
The sources said IIT Roorkee had vetted the design of the dome only in the middle part of last year. They said the High-Powered Committee (HPC) should have factored in MUDA’s objections. “The dome design could have been done away with,” an official said, declining to be named.
He said the dome could have collapsed due to faulty structural engineering since Design and Associates, the firm engaged for the project, did not have any experience in working in the region.
“This factor will be ascertained once the auditing team starts its exercise,” the official said.
Official sources said the weight of the dome was 70 tonnes and the structure to hold it in place weighs 3,250 tonnes.
The state government is yet to decide on assigning the task of auditing the collapse of the dome to the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG).
Officials had recently said that the state government received responses from the IITG, Central Building Research Institute, IIT Roorkee and IIT Delhi expressing keenness to take up the assignment. IIT-Kharagpur chose not to respond, they said.
The officials said all three institutes had quoted their rates for conducting the audit. The PWD (Building) compared the statement of each respondent and found that IITG was the lowest bidder.
“The department will now place the comparative statements before the state government. It is most likely that IITG will be asked to do the audit,” an official added.
He said an IITG team had visited the site of the new Assembly building for inspection and to make an initial assessment on May 27.
