SHILLONG, Sep 9: The dome of the under-construction Meghalaya Assembly building at Mawdiangdiang in the New Shillong Township collapsed on May 22 due to its dead weight and lack of coordination between the designers and the contractors working on the project, the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IITG), which probed the incident, said in its report.
The High-Powered Committee (HPC) of the Meghalaya Legislative Committee has sought an explanation from the designers and the contractors and based on it, the HPC will decide further action.
Disclosing this on Friday, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said, “We have received the report from the IIT Guwahati several days, maybe weeks back and now, this has been placed in the High Powered Committee.”
He said the HPC had stressed on technical findings – the reason behind the dome’s collapse and the building’s overall safety, strength and structure.
“In the first case, the finding of the IIT Guwahati was that because of the action of the dead weight alone which means the overall weight of the entire dome was too heavy for it to sustain,” Sangma said.
He said the IITG mentioned this required a large amount of coordination. There was lack of coordination between the different agencies during the implementation of the design. Had it not been so, the situation would not have occurred, he added.
On the safety of the building, the chief minister said, “The final finding of the report was that the rest of the building was safe. The structural and foundational strengths were found to be as per standards.”
He said the IITG has specifically mentioned in the report that if the government decides to go ahead with the dome’s structure, then it should be of lighter weight which means the structure can still be a dome but should be much lighter compared to the 4.5 lakh kg dome which was the initial concrete and steel structure.
Sangma said according to the IITG, all that should be replaced with a much lighter dome structure. He said it will be decided by the HPC.
He said the HPC instructed the government to immediately call the designers and the contractors and ask for an explanation. He said based on the report and the explanation, the government will come up with its suggestions which would be placed in the next HPC meeting.
He said the HPC will go through the explanation of the stakeholders and take action accordingly.
“But we have to give a chance to these stakeholders to give their part of explanation as to the findings of this report. Once we hear their story, we will be in a position to take a decision,” he said.
The CM said Assembly Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh, who is the HPC chairman, has suggested that the HPC should sit by the next week or within ten days.
