Assembly construction to resume by November

SHILLONG, Oct 13: Construction of the new Assembly building is likely to resume by the end of November.
The building project was put on hold after the collapse of the central dome on May 22. The incident had affected some portions of the building and following pressure from all quarters, the government invited a team from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IITG) to conduct a safety audit of the building.
A government official on Thursday told The Shillong Times that the debris was being cleared.
The official said that once the debris is cleared they would know how much of restoration work was required. The debris clearing work is expected to be completed by November 15.
Presently, experts are preparing a new design for a “light weight” dome, the official said.
The government intends to use light materials for construction of a new dome as recommended by the IITG audit team.
The high-powered committee (HPC) under Assembly Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh had, last month, cleared the resumption of work on the new Assembly building at Mawdiangdiang. The new design of the dome will need the approval of the members of the HPC and the technical team supervising the construction work.
During the audit, the IITG team had found that the right, left and central wings of the building was safe. The team had come to the conclusion that the dome had collapsed due to the lack of coordination among the designer, the contractor and the project management consultant.
The actual height of the previous dome was about 65 meters while the height of the minar was 13 meters. The dome weighed around 70 tonnes.