Panvel Municipal Corporation has approved an additional Rs 371 crore for construction and related work at its proposed Swarajya headquarters, after a special general body meeting on Wednesday. The approval includes Rs 120 crore for construction and Rs 251 crore for decoration and other ancillary works.
The decision comes as the headquarters project, which began in 2022, remains incomplete. The building was originally expected to be completed within 30 months. Municipal members questioned when the corporation’s administrative operations would finally shift to the building, given that substantial expenditure has already been incurred over the past four years.
According to information presented to the meeting, the original construction contract was awarded for Rs 112 crore. Panvel Municipal Commissioner Mangesh Chitale said that changes in the work had increased the construction cost to Rs 131 crore.
The changes include alterations to some elements of the original work and materials, as well as modifications to parts of the building’s design. These changes will require a fresh tender, the corporation said. Work worth approximately Rs 30 crore from the original contract has also not yet been completed and will have to be included in the new tender.
The review of the increased construction and decoration costs was presented to the general body by Tejaswini Pandit of Hiten Sethi Associates, the consultancy firm associated with the project. The corporation attributed the delay to technical difficulties and said that the consulting company responsible for overseeing construction had not informed the administration in time about changes and the slow pace of work.
The approved amount therefore covers both the revised construction requirement and the extensive decoration and ancillary works planned for the headquarters. The next formal step is the issuance of a new tender covering the altered works, the unfinished portion of the original contract and the additional requirements identified during the review.
