Haj House: A Saga from demolition to construction

| | Ranchi
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Haj House: A Saga from demolition to construction

Wednesday, 05 June 2019 | Roshan Kumar | Ranchi

Chief Minister Raghubar Das today dedicated the state-of-art Haj House to people of the State. The Haj House built at an area of 1 acre of land has come up demolishing the old structure which existed earlier at the same site. In 2006-07, the then UPA Government cleared a proposal for construction of five-storied Haj House at an estimated cost of Rs 5 crore.

The quality of work was so poor that its walls started collapsing during construction itself. In 2009, several labourers were injured when a portico of the under construction building collapsed. After the incident, the then Governor K.Sankaranarayanan ordered for technical inspections of the building. At that time Jharkhand was under President’s rule.

Jharkhand State Minorities Commission chairman Md Kamal Khan said, “After the incident, media started highlighting the poor construction of Haj House. As media started digging on loopholes of construction work at that time newspapers had reports about anomalies in construction work.” On pressure of opposition parties and public, a team of technicians comprising engineers from BIT Mesra and a private construction company carried out the inspection of the structure.

The committee in its inspection report declared the building dangerous stating that it could collapse anytime. The committee in its report stated that low quality construction materials were used in the construction work and the agency which had constructed the structure had floated norms in the project. After committee report, in 2012 the State Government ordered a vigilance inquiry.

When the Raghubar Das Government came to power in 2014, based on vigilance inquiry and directions from Court the State Government decided to demolish the structure as it was fatal for people. The Raghubar Government at the same time decided to build new building with world class facilities.

State Urban Development department minister CP Singh who too was present at the inauguration of new building said, “The old Haj House which was constructed during UPA Government tenure was in such dilapidated state that once I had the chance of visiting the building. The caretakers of the Haj House asked me to be cautious as part of building material can fall at any time. I too was wondered with poor construction work.”

“As a public representative (Singh that time was only MLA) I decided to meet then Minority Welfare Minister Haji Hussain Ansari. I highlighted the poor construction work of the Haj House, but the Minister was speechless. Later, I came to know that the Minister’s son was involved in the construction work of the structure,” he said.

The state-of-art Haj House is built at an area of one lakh square feet comes up at the cost of Rs 50 crore. In April 2017, then President Pranab Mukherjee during his visit to State capital laid the foundation stone of the building. The five-storeyed  Haj House is constructed according to Mugal architecture. Around 1,000 people can offer Namaz at one time.

The Haj House consists of two storeyed underground parking. It consists of a prayer room, Visa room, kitchen and VIP room. A total of 150 men and 80 women can stay at a time. It is centrally air- conditioned apart from huge HVLS ceiling fans fitted in the building. Similar type of ceiling fans is fitted at Mumbai Airport.

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