Meghalaya Assembly Dome Collapse: TMC alleges shocking anomalies and violations of rules while awarding the contract

The Meghalaya Trinamool Congress (TMC) on September 20 alleged that 'shocking anomalies' took place in the construction of the new Meghalaya Assembly Building in Shillong which collapsed on May 2022.

TMC leader Saket Gokhale in a letter to the Minister in Charge of PWD Building Dasakhiat Lamare alleged that there were shocking anomalies and violations of rules while awarding the contract for the construction of the new Meghalaya Assembly Building in Shillong in 2018.

According to the TMC leader, the bid documents for the tender were released in 2018, and bidders for the contract included M/s Bardi Rai and Company and Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd.

The TMC leader further alleged that the contractor Badri Rai and Company was disqualified from being awarded the tender because the company "did not fulfil the qualifying criteria of having successfully completed similar works during the last 7 years of key Government buildings with Dome or similar architectural features".

“In short, the contractor Badri Rai and Company was disqualified in the technical evaluation specifically for not having any experience in building a similar government building with a DOME”, reads the letter of TMC leader Saket Gokhale.

“The other bidder for the new Meghalaya Assembly Building tender was a contractor called M/S Shiva Enterprise. This contractor was disqualified because the contractor did not submit hard copies of the technical bid,” the letter further read. 

“What follows is a shocking revelation of lack of monitoring and gross irregularity in the construction of the new Meghalaya Assembly Building. The tender for the construction of the new Meghalaya Assembly Building was finally awarded to the bidder Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd,” it added.

“However, in a response to an RTI filed by the undersigned, the Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd, a shocking fact has come to light”, it said. 

Gokhale further added that according to the RTI response, the Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd has sub-contracted construction work of the new Meghalaya Assembly Building to both disqualified contractors namely (a) Badri Rai and Company and (b) Shiva Enterprise.

“It baffles the mind that the Govt of Meghalaya and PWD (Buildings) allowed Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd. to blatantly and brazenly subcontract the construction work to 2 contractors who had been disqualified at the tender evaluation stage,” he claimed. 

This entirely defeats the purpose of a technical evaluation of a tender bid disqualified contractors are eventually going to be subcontracted by the winning contractor, he said.

Badri Rai and Co. and Shiva Enterprise had been disqualified from constructing the new Meghalaya Assembly Building. However, Uttar Pradesh Rajiya Nirman Nigam Ltd. ended up subcontracting work to these same disqualified contractors leading to the collapse of the dome of the building, the letter further informed. 

According to the letter, the entire incident stinks not just of alarming anomalies, but also of an attempt to defraud the government and people of Meghalaya by criminal collusion amongst the contractors in gross violation of all rules.