‘HC plan to be ready by December’

The government of Maharashtra on Tuesday informed the Bombay high court that it would submit a master plan for construction of the new high court complex in Government Colony at Bandra by December 31, 2016.

An affidavit filed by Rajendra Jawanjal, superintending engineer, Mumbai Public Works Circle, on Tuesday said that the state government had invited four international consultants to do the job of designing a new high court complex; however, two of them did not respond to the queries raised by government, one showed interest initially but backed out later and the last one asked for exorbitant fees which made their offer infructuous.

However, the affidavit has further said that the government has accorded an in-principle approval for inclusion of the provision for new high court complex by earmarking enough land to construct 2,40,897 square metres of built-up area in the proposed redevelopment of government colony at Bandra.

“The government has decided to rebuild the government colony in Bandra and plans to build a world class township and ultra-modern infrastructure along with a state-of-the-art building for the high court with a building area of approximately 25.93 lakh sq ft,” read the affidavit.

The affidavit has further stated that the state is also exploring the concept of redevelopment of Government Colony in Bandra by obtaining technical expertise and assistance of international consultants through government-to-government co-operation model by signing a (Memorandum of Understanding) MoU with the respective governments. Also, the option of government-to-government co-operation with governments of Korea, Dubai and Singapore was being explored, it said.