There were no reported casualties after a part of the recently constructed Meghalaya Legislative Assembly building fell. According to them, the 70-tonne dome of the Rs 177.7 crore building built by UP-based UPNRNNL fell at around 12:30 a.m. Friday night. According to a PWD (Building) Executive Engineer in charge of the project, the fall could have been caused by a design flaw.
"The weight of the steel dome was perhaps too much for the columns and the beams to bear. This resulted in the entire structure coming down," PTI quoted PWD Executive Engineer Ransom Sutnga as saying.
He estimated that clearing the rubble would take another two weeks. The engineer who hurried to the site early in the morning estimated that raising a new dome structure would take at least another 8 months. IIT-Roorkee personnel approved and vetted the entire building's plans, according to Assembly officials. Work on the new structure began in June 2019 and was expected to be completed by August 2022.
