Shillong, April 13 (IANS): Meghalaya will start constructing the assembly building to replace a 125-year-old Burmese teak building reduced to ashes 16 years ago, officials said on Thursday.
From March 2001, assembly sessions have been held at the state's central library auditorium and later shifted to arts and culture auditorium within the premises of Brookside, the house where Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore began writing his "Shesher Kobita" in 1919.
However, the Speaker said the new building would not be a replica of the heritage assembly building in Gothic style built by the British in pre-independent India.
"We (government) targeted to start the construction of the new assembly chamber and the assembly secretariat within this year and complete it by 2019," Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said.
Sangma said the proposed new assembly building would be built at the New Shillong Township in Mawdiangdiang, 12 km from Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya.
"The state government will earmark funds from its own resources for the building, which initial cost will be Rs 70-75 crore," Sangma said.
