Meghalaya’s New Assembly Building To Be Ready By Next Autumn

The HPC has agreed on a 100-day extension, making it impossible to hold the budget session as originally planned.

The completion of Meghalaya’s new Assembly building at Mawdiangdiang, in the outskirts of Shillong, has been extended to the next autumn session of 2025.
This decision was made during the High Power Committee (HPC) meeting chaired by Assembly Speaker Thomas A. Sangma on Wednesday.
The unique structural design of the building, particularly its dome, has been a significant factor in the cautious progress. The dome’s intricate design, not commonly seen in this region, requires meticulous execution to avoid any potential mishaps. This complexity has necessitated the deployment of a structural engineer on-site to ensure quality control throughout the process.
The meeting to review progress was chaired by Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Speaker Thomas A. Sangma and attended by key stakeholders, including Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, Deputy Chief Ministers Prestone Tynsong and Sniawbhalang Dhar, Leader of the Opposition Dr. Mukul Sangma, legislators Charles Pyngrope, Lahkmen Rymbui, and Banteidor Lyngdoh, Chief Secretary D.P. Wahlang, Assembly Commissioner and Secretary Dr. Andrew Simons, and other senior officials.
While speaking to media, Meghalaya CM Conrad K Sangma said, “The work is progressing well, but we have faced challenges. Engineers from the Public Works Department (PWD), the Project Management Consultant (PMC), and contractors have held multiple reviews to address every minute detail is looked into. They have urged for an additional time as they don’t want to rush to complete the project. Therefore, the HPC has agreed on a 100-day extension, making it impossible to hold the budget session as originally planned. However, we remain optimistic about completing the project by the autumn session of 2025.”
The Chief Minister highlighted significant changes to the dome’s design and materials to ensure stability and safety. “The design of dome structure has been completely changed from the past. Earlier, dome design was suspended on a platform. Now, the new design places the dome’s structure on the main beams and foundation, so the pressure will not be on the platform which was holding the dome but rather the dome’s structure go and the rest on the beams and foundation, enhance it is going to be very stable structure. This change ensures greater stability and addresses seismic safety, rain leakage, and long-term maintenance concerns,” he explained.
“Earlier dome design and material used was making the dome structure at a weighed of 3,000 metric tons, now after the change in design and material changes, the dome weight has come down from 3000 metric tons to 85 metric tons,” CM added.

After the meeting, speaking to reporters, Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Speaker Thomas A. Sangma said, “The progress so far is satisfactory, but we are proceeding very slowly and carefully because of the unique structural design of the main hall dome. There is no similar design in this part of the country. We cannot afford to rush and risk another mishap.”
He further added, “A structural engineer has already been posted at the site to ensure quality control. Initially, we hoped to hold the budget session here, but we regret that the sensitive work still pending won’t allow us to do so. Instead, we aim to complete the project and inaugurate the building before the autumn session of 2025.”
Earlier, in May 2022, a portion of the newly constructed Legislative Assembly building collapsed but there were no reported injury. Work on the new building was started in June 2019.

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