The state government has refused to give information on the cost for temporarily shifting the offices of the chief minister, deputy chief minister and chief secretary from the sixth to first floor following a massive fire at Mantralaya and subsequent makeover citing security reasons.
The information was sought by activist Anil Galgali under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
“The cost of the entire Mantralaya makeover was about Rs138 crore. I had sought details under the RTI Act about the cost of shifting the offices of the chief minister, deputy chief minister and the chief secretary temporarily from the sixth floor to the first floor and then back. But the information was denied citing security reasons,” Galgali said.
In the reply, Galgali was informed that in the first phase, Unity Infraprojects Limited will complete the repairs and renovation of the floors that were damaged in the June 21 fire. In the second phase, the remaining three floors — the ground to the third floor — will be renovated.
“The renovation work of Mantralaya is still on and the delay again shows how shoddily the Public Works Department is monitoring the work. There is no logic in withholding the information in the name of security,” he told dna.
The RTI query revealed that till now the government had paid Rs94 crore with a break up that while civil work cost Rs 57 crore, the electrical work cost Rs 13.6 crore, totalling to about Rs 71 crore being paid to Unity Infraprojects.
The second highest amount of Rs13.7 crore was paid to the executive engineer, South Mumbai, electrical department. Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd got Rs4,99,77,456 from PWD department.
A sum of Rs4.04 crore was paid to consultants Raja Aederi Consultants Pvt Ltd as their fee between Feb 28 and Oct 22, 2013.
The PWD paid Rs11,23,600 to IIT-Mumbai, Rs10,44,800 to the BEST, Rs8,87,644 to HM Raje Structural Consultants Pvt Ltd and Rs3,52,000 to the BMC for various work.
It may be recalled that on 21 June 2012 a fire broke out at the building.
As per the preliminary report, the fire was caused due to an electric wire short-circuit.
While five people died, 16 were injured and hundreds of files were destroyed in the fire.
On 9 March 2013, another fire broke out on the fourth floor.
As per preliminary reports, the fire was caused by a short-circuit.
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