The under-construction Assembly annexe on Friday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Sept. 11: The work on the Assembly extension building has resumed after a gap of five months.

The construction work had stopped in March after a petition was filed in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) alleging that the construction was taking place without environmental clearance.

The building construction department has resumed the work after state-level environment impact assessment authority (SEIAA) issued the mandatory clearance recently.

“Fresh work order has been issued for resuming the work on the Assembly annexe building and the work has started. We intend to complete the remaining work shortly,” said Chanchal Kumar, secretary, building construction department.

There are several serious violations in the construction of this annexe building and a petition is also being heard at the NGT. The Telegraph had highlighted this issue in its editions dated February 4, February 8, August 1 and September 10 this year.

SEIAA granted the environmental clearance to the building through a letter signed by member secretary of the authority, U.S. Jha, dated August 27. Several corrective steps were taken prior to the issue of the clearance. An FIR was filed against the executive engineer concerned in the building construction department and Vadodra-based Karan Grover, the project consultant in the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Patna, on June 3.

The building construction department, through a letter dated March 25, also gave an undertaking to SEIAA, stating that mistakes would not be repeated and all future construction work would be undertaken only after obtaining prior environmental clearance.

Former chief minister Nitish Kumar laid the foundation stone for the annexe building on January 26, 2010, which marked the commencement of construction activities. The project includes construction of the Vidhan Mandal building and four secretariat blocks.

Four years after the construction started, the superstructure of the gigantic building is almost ready but all that has been done in violation of a number of norms.