Shillong, May 23 (PTI) A day after the steel dome atop the under-construction Assembly building in Meghalaya crashed, Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh on Monday said an inquiry will be instituted to find out what led to its collapse.
Lyngdoh, during the day, held a closed-door meeting with the chief engineer of the PWD department, which is overseeing the work being undertaken to construct the Rs 177.7 crore Assembly building, and a team of structural engineers from Delhi that was involved in crafting the design among other stakeholders.
Contract for the project in New Shillong Township has been given to UP-based firm UPNRRN Ltd.
The 70-ton steel dome crashed on Sunday around 12:30 am.
Talking to reporters, the speaker said that the other part of the building (left wing and right wing), which is intact, will be assessed by a third party auditing agency before going ahead with the remaining construction work.
Work to set up the new Assembly building had commenced in 2019 and was scheduled to end in July this year.
Terming the incident as “unfortunate”, Metbah said, “There has to be an independent inquiry to find out the cause of the dome collapse.
“I have convened a high-level committee meeting tomorrow which will be attended by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and other officials.” He also said that he was “deeply disappointed” with the episode.
“Either design flaw or faulty construction led to the incident. We will look into it,” he added.
PWD Executive Engineer Ransom Sutnga had earlier said that preliminary investigation revealed that design flaws have led to the mishap.
He told PTI that false columns and the beams erected to support the dome were not sturdy enough to hold it in place.
A devastating fire in 2001 had reduced the erstwhile Meghalaya Assembly building to ashes. Sessions, since then, are held in an auditorium of the Art and Culture department in Rilbong area of Shillong. PTI JOP RMS RMS
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