IMPHAL: The Manipur high court has directed the state government to come up with plans to decongest traffic near the old Manipur secretariat in Imphal.
The Manipur high court has also asked the state government to make arrangements for proper parking of vehicles on both sides of the road near the old secretariat.
Furthermore, the Manipur high court has also directed the state government to enforce traffic rules to ensure that illegally parked vehicles being booked.
The direction was passed by a Manipur high court bench comprising acting chief justice MV Muralidharan and justice A Guneshwar Sharma while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an advocate over timely completion of the construction work of the new Manipur capital complex at Mantripukhri in Imphal.
The PIL stated that although construction work for Manipur civil secretariat started in 2010 and even after 13 years the same has not been completed.
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It may be mentioned here that construction work of Manipur civil secretariat was awarded to Simplex Projects Limited.
Since Simplex could not complete the construction work within the stipulated time, the contract was terminated and in 2021 the work was awarded to Sri Avantika Contractors with a condition to complete the work within 12 months.
According to a report submitted by Sri Avantika Contractors to the Manipur high court, the work is about 95 percent complete.
The petitioner further argued that non-completion of the Manipur civil secretariat has been causing inconvenience/grievances to the general public.