Kottayam: The construction of two multi-storey buildings was started simultaneously within a distance of 1.5 from each other to accommodate the Town Planning Office; and the construction of one building was abandoned after the blunder came to light when bills were produced for payment. By that time, nearly Rs. 2 crore had been spent.
The Revenue department has clarified that the incident occurred due to a slip-up in the office of the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department (PWD). Meanwhile, the PWD responded stating that the reason for the gaffe was that the head office had mentioned the account wrongly.
Acting on the instruction of the Revenue department, the PWD had awarded the contracts for the construction of one building near the Kottayam collectorate and the other one around 1.5 km away, near the Thirunakkara mini civil station.
It was realised that the two buildings were being constructed for the same office only after the bills for the two projects were submitted together at the finance section of the PWD. Following this, the bills for the Thirunakkara building were put on hold. The contractor approached the court and got more than half of the billed amount released.
Besides the planning office, the proposed 4-storey building at Thirunakkara was meant to accommodate many other government offices now functioning in rented buildings, including the taluk office.
District Collector Dr PK Jayasree said that a revised estimate had been submitted for this building after excluding the planning office.
