Assembly dome collapse needs probe: Hek to Prime Minister

SHILLONG, Sep 11: BJP legislator from Pynthorumkhrah, Alexander Laloo Hek on Sunday petitioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi to institute an inquiry into the process of awarding the contract for the construction of the Meghalaya Assembly building and the subsequent collapse of its dome.
The MLA is also a member of the BJP’s Central Executive Committee.
In his letter, Hek sought Modi’s urgent attention to the “brazen irregularity” in the contract awarding process by the state government for the construction of the new Assembly building in the New Shillong Township at Mawdiangdiang.
He said the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) team entrusted with assessing the damage found that the dome of the under-construction building collapsed on May 22 due to its dead weight and lack of coordination between the designers and the contractors working on the project.
“As the incident of dome collapse has brought immense embarrassment and shame to the state, I want to take this opportunity to apprise you of the questionable bidding process that took place for the construction of the new Meghalaya Assembly building,” Hek wrote.
He said that Assam-based Badri Rai Company Ltd was disqualified during the bidding process after the technical evaluation, as it did not have prior experience in constructing a dome and failed to have the minimum criteria of bank solvency certificate/ overdraft facilities/ credit limit issued from a nationalised bank of at least 20% of the estimated cost of the project put to tender.
The contract was then awarded to Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Limited, which subcontracted the project to the same company that was rejected in the initial bidding process on multiple grounds, Hek pointed out.