Structure of MC office faulty: Mayor

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 19

The claims regarding the new state-of-the-art building of the Municipal Corporation at Ranjit Avenue have fallen flat with the city mayor terming the building just a painted and plastered structure sans necessary facilities.

The building does not have underground water and sewerage pipes, telephone and AC wires and other necessary infrastructure.

Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora said the new MC building didn’t have basic amenities. “Nowadays even a small residential building has non-visible wiring and pipes. The MC staff can’t install split air-conditioners as the building does not have under-plaster wiring. Electricians will have to install visible wiring to install split or window ACs which give the office a clumsy look,” he said.

Similarly, no wiring for telephone has been laid while most of the necessary pipes of sewerage and potable water too have not been installed. “The meeting hall on the top floor of the building was too small to accommodate all councillors and officials so a wall had to be pulled down to add an adjoining room to make the hall spacious. Even then the hall is full of faults. Sound in the hall echoes which makes it hard to understand what a speaker says during a meeting,” he remarked.

According to the mayor, the construction cost of the building is said to be Rs 30 crore, but “the expenditure shouldn’t have been more than Rs 12 crore”.

Weeks before the election, the MC had shifted its offices from Colonial Town Hall building, which had been given a heritage status and converted into a museum based on Indo-Pak partition.

The new building was constructed by the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB), as per an agreement signed between the MC and the board.

The move was aimed to benefit people who would get all kinds of works done under one roof, without undergoing congestion in the walled city where the town hall building was located.