Manipur High Court Directs State To Decongest Traffic Near Old Secretariat, Complete Construction Of New Secretariat Building In 3 Months

The Manipur High Court on Thursday directed the state government to decongest the traffic on national highway in front of the Old Manipur Secretariat by making arrangements for proper parking of vehicles on both sides.

The direction came to be passed by a bench comprising Acting Chief Justice M.V. Muralidharan and Justice A. Guneshwar Sharma while hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by an advocate to complete the balance/remaining work for construction of Capitol Complex (Civil Secretariat Component) at Mantripukhri, Imphal, so that the existing Manipur Secretariat may be shifted to the new building and there is no traffic congestion.

In his plea the petitioner stated that the Civil Secretariat work was started in the year 2010 and even after about 13 years the same has not been completed. The work for construction of Civil Secretariat was awarded to Simplex Projects Limited.

Since Simplex could not complete the construction work within the stipulated time, the contract was terminated and in 2021 the work was awarded to Sri Avantika Contractors with a condition to complete the work within 12 months.

The petitioner also invited the attention of the court to a report submitted by Sri Avantika Contractors to the High Court in terms of which it had indicated that the work is about 95 per cent complete and despite completion of 95 per cent work, out of the total bill of Rs 100.78 crore submitted PWD only paid a sum of Rs 69.11 crore and currently, there is an outstanding of Rs 31.67 crore due to them.

The approval on a large number of deviation items sought by Avantika has not been considered by the PWD and remains actionable at their end and this among several other factors has lead to a delay in completion of the project, the petitioner averred.

The petitioner further argued that non-completion of the Civil Secretariat caused inconvenience/grievances to the general public passing through the eastern side of the present Manipur Secretariat, as both halves of the National Highway in front of the Secretariat are occupied by the parked vehicles of the officers/employees and securities of VIPs, which has caused traffic congestion.

Thus, a prayer was made to direct the respondents to complete the balance work within the time frame so that the present Manipur Secretariat may be shifted to the new building at Mantripukhri.

The official respondents submitted that no representation was submitted by the petitioner to the authorities for remedial action before filing the public interest litigation and on that sole ground, the present public interest litigation is liable to be dismissed.

Contesting the traffic congestion allegations of the petitioner, the respondents submitted that the vehicles parked on the National Highway-102 in front of the Manipur Secretariat are managed by the Imphal Municipality and action is being taken against the vehicles parked illegally.

Additional AG further submitted that there is more to recover from Avantika than to pay them and the completion of the project is not related with the payment to the Avantika.

Dealing with the matter at hand the bench observed that the non-submission of the representation to the respondent authorities for remedial measures before filing the public interest litigation would not in any way technically affect the present petition for the simple reason that the cause brought to the notice of this Court by the petitioner by way of this public interest litigation assumes larger public interest.

"It is the admitted case of both sides that the delay in completion of the Civil Secretariat work has caused traffic congestion on the Highway adjacent to the existing Secretariat as both halves of the National Highway in front of the Secretariat are occupied by the parked vehicles of the officers/employees and securities of VIPs. The said traffic congestion has led to inconvenience to the public passing through the eastern side of the present Secretariat", the bench pointed.

In view of this admitted position the court it directed the state government to strictly enforce the traffic rules to ensure illegal parked vehicles are booked.

Observing that the state government has to be a role model in settling the contractor for the work done by them, the court said that because of non-payment, the work cannot be delayed, as the contractor has to pay salaries to its employees for their hard work done and settle the material cost to the traders.

Therefore, the state government and Avantika were directed to comply with their contractual obligations with the completion of construction of Civil Secretariat work. The state is directed to pay the outstanding dues as per the RA Bills raised by the Avantika and also approve the rates of deviations and extra items regarding the Civil Secretariat work at earliest, said the court.

The bench further directed the state and the Avantika are directed to co-operate and work in concert with each other to ensure that the Civil Secretariat work is to be completed within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a copy of the order.

Case Title: Shri Potsangbam Jaminikanta Singh Vs State of Manipur

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