Patna: The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) is pushing forward the renovation and beautification work of Mauryalok Complex. The standing committee members of the PMC are all set to discuss how to take up the beautification and renovation work of the complex in its May 7 meeting .

Mayor Sita Sahu said buildings of the complex would be renovated while steps would also be taken for overhauling the condition of its toilets besides repairing the roads on the complex campus and strengthening the electricity arrangements.

She said vigil on the campus will be increased by increasing the number of security guards and landscaping work would also be done to add to the beauty of the complex and the drainage network would be repaired.

"Urban development and housing minister Suresh Kumar Sharma has promised to provide around Rs 10 crore. He has asked for the detailed project report from the corporation. At the meeting on May 7, we would chalk out an action plan on how to go about the work. So far as repairing the roads on the complex campus is concerned, we have decided to give a no-objection certificate to the road construction department to start the work," said Sahu.

Opened to the public in 1984, Mauryalok Complex has around 500 shops, government offices and banks and around 25,000 people visit it on a daily basis even though the complex, which is dubbed as the heart of the city, cuts a sorry picture with a dilapidated complex building, stinking toilets, broken tiles and dangling electric wires. The corporation's office also run at the complex but that has also not changed its fate.

The PMC is supposed to look after the maintenance work of the complex. In 2014, it handed over the renovation work of the complex to the Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (BUIDCo) on the order of Patna High Court. The BUIDCo had handed over the work to some private contractor within a six-month deadline. Rs 4 crore was spent on the renovation work but the complex continued to bear the sorry picture even after the renovation.

There was no roof-repairing work, drainage remain choked while dangling wires could also be found on the campus even after the renovation. The Mauryalok Shopkeepers' Association had also filed a PIL in Patna High Court stating that the complex campus had dilapidated walls and roofs, stagnant water and dangling wires. The court had asked BUIDCo to repair the complex within a fixed time frame then.