A decrepit stairway at Mauryalok complex. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna High Court’s repeated directives on the much-needed renovation of the 30-year-old Mauryalok Complex appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BUIDCo) has not been able to complete the renovation work at Mauryalok — the biggest commercial hub in the city — though September 15 (Monday) is the set deadline. The court had directed BUIDCo to finish the plastering, whitewashing, roof carpeting, staircase repair, wiring of electricity and telephone lines and seepage-proofing works.

Visiting Mauryalok on the eve of the deadline, The Telegraph found that not even half of the renovation work was complete. Except a staircase on Bailey Road facing the A-block, none of the others in the four blocks was found repaired. A student of National Institute of Technology, Patna, was injured after a portion of another staircase in A-block collapsed on April 1.

On August 4, the high court, during a hearing on a petition filed by Mauryalok Shopkeepers’ Welfare Association, had asked BUIDCo to submit a tentative timeframe for completion of the Mauryalok renovation work.

The shopkeepers’ association had filed the writ petition in April, 2013, stating that the complex was full of garbage, stagnant water and entangled wires. Large-scale encroachments, and precarious walls and roof were also plaguing the complex. The petition was later converted into a public interest litigation.

“BUIDCo gave the September 15 timeline on its own after the court asked for a tentative timeframe for the renovation works. However, they have just done superficial work. The floor work has been done only in the front portion of A-block and some parts of C-block. No work has been initiated for internal wiring. Work on toilets, the most important amenity in such a big complex, has also remained untouched. Internal roads are full of craters and no work has been done to improve the faulty drainage network, leading to damage of walls by water seepage,” said Rajesh Kumar “Dablu”, the president of Mauryalok Shopkeepers’ Association.

Senior BUIDCo officials attributed the delay in the work to lack of co-operation of shopkeepers and other agencies. “We have written several letters to BSNL to make temporary wiring in Mauryalok complex but in futile. The shopkeepers are also not co-operating by removing their boards. However, we would complete all renovation works on A-block and C-block by Durga Puja, and the rest in the two blocks by end-October,” said a BUIDCo official.

BUIDCo managing director D.K. Shukla was unavailable for comment on Sunday.

A source said BUIDCo had received Rs 3.73 crore from Patna Municipal Corporation under the high court directive to carry out the repair work at the complex.

Shopkeepers claimed that the contractor selected for the work was doing inferior work. “The water seepage has led the iron scaffolding to rust inside the walls. Even at those places, they are doing cement patchwork, which would not provide any long-term solution to the risk of collapse of the structure,” said Dinesh Prasad, the owner of shop number 30 at A-block.