The Patna collectorate. Picture by Ashok Sinha

The district administration is looking for alternative accommodation to run its offices. The existing buildings would be demolished to construct a new collectorate building.

The new building would be an integrated structure housing all offices in a multi-storeyed building.

A sum of Rs 40 crore would be spent on the project and work would commence in two months. A meeting in this regard was recently held under the chairmanship of chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh in which he gave his nod.

Patna district magistrate (DM) Manish Kumar Verma said: “The existing building is in a dilapidated condition and now, it has become very difficult to work in it. On several occasions, parts of the roof caved in. I had given the proposal to the building construction department and the chief secretary for the construction of new building. Now, the chief secretary has given permission. ”

It would be a six-storeyed integrated structure having offices of registration, excise, transport, general provident fund and treasury. The new building would come up behind the existing building of the district board on the western side of the collectorate campus. The campus, spread across 9.605 acres, is located north of the Gandhi Maidan.

At present, the registration and excise department offices are located on the collectorate premises and the transport department is located at Biscomaun Bhavan. However, the offices of the general provident fund and treasury are on the collectorate campus but far from the main building where the DM sits.

At present, many offices, which function under the DM are located outside the collectorate campus and a lot of time is wasted if officials concerned have to attend meetings with him.

Asked about any particular space, which the district administration is looking at as a temporary workspace, Verma said: “We are looking for a temporary space but it has to be huge. We are also planning to install biometric attendance system in the collectorate to keep a tab on attendance of our employees.”

Once the construction of the new building starts, it would take around one-and-a-half years, said the DM.