Shillong, May 18: Rainwater caused the collapse of the retention wall of the Assembly building at Mawdiangdiang on May 16 night, according to state Public Works Department.
The collapse was since the area near the wall did not have proper drainage facility, as per the assesment of the PWD.
The rainwater did not have any outlet to pass through in the absence of the drainage system, resulting in the incident.
The road outside the wall also did not have any space to drain out the water.
There was incessant rain for a few hours during the day on May 16 and it was at night that the retention wall collapsed.
“The cause of collapse of the wall was due to the heavy downpour . At the entry side the surface runoff from road side also enters the Assembly compound. All waters run down to the low level area where the collapsed wall exists. The wall collapsed due to accumulation of rain water at the ground near the wall”, an official source said.
The source added that the wall is under the Assembly Secretariat though the PWD supervises its construction.
According to the source, Commissioner & Secretary of the Assembly Secretariat had suggested the need to construct proper drainage facility in the past
The PWD removed the debris from the site on Saturday evening.
CM’s version
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Saturday claimed that the collapse of the retaining wall has nothing to do and will not have any impact on the ongoing construction of the new Assembly building.
Sangma conducted an inspection to the new Assembly complex following the incident.
“I got a call yesterday from the Speaker and he had asked me to look into the matter and after doing my preliminary investigation and findings along with the PWD, I had been informed that this particular retaining wall has got nothing to do with the main construction of the building that is going on. In fact, we have been told that it is impossible to reach that location from here as it is very far away down on the sloping side,” he said.
Stating that the retaining wall was a completely different project that is going on and is quite far away from the new Assembly building, Sangma said, “It is also being implemented by the Assembly secretariat, it is not being implemented by the PWD.”
He also said the retaining wall was made about a couple of years back,
“The reason why this has gone down was because of the landslides that have taken place and the landslides and different kinds of reasons that this particular situation has happened”, he added.
“Therefore, I want to clarify that it has got nothing to do with the construction of the building and it will in no way impact the construction of the building,” he asserted.
