Gurugram civic body to reconstruct old office in Civil Lines from October

The move came as the condition of the municipal corporation of Gurugram office, opposite Civil Hospital, has been deteriorating, especially over the past six years

Work on reconstructing the old municipal corporation of Gurugram (MCG) office in Civil Lines will commence from the next month, said officials on Friday. This came as the condition of the MCG office, opposite Civil Hospital, has been deteriorating, especially over the last six years, they added.

The old Municipal Corporation of Gurugram building near Civil Lines is in a dilapidated condition. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

The roof of the MCG office has collapsed at least thrice this year, following heavy rainfall and thunderstorms. Also, rainwater enters offices of the second-floor departments through cracks/gaps in the building, and the walls are either cracked or paints are peeling off. Virtually, the office does not even have a parking space.

To resolve these issues, the MCG in June 2021 prepared a ₹30.10 crore proposal for reconstructing the building, administrative approval of which was granted by the Haryana government on Tuesday.

The project work order has been issued, and a two-year deadline has been set for the contractor to complete the project, said MCG commissioner Mukesh Kumar Ahuja. “Administrative approval from the Haryana government has been procured, and the project work order has also been issued. We are planning to start the reconstruction work from October,” he said.

According to MCG officials, privy to the matter, the two-storey MCG office will be revamped with a commercial space at the ground floor, along with a citizen facilitation centre (CFC) where the people can make payments for licence, property tax, and water bill among others. Besides the ground floor, two other floors will also be reserved for commercial spaces, and five floors for offices.

The main direct public dealing at the old MCG office is for the issuance of birth and death certificates, similar to other offices of the civic body. In addition, internal proceedings for zone 1 and 2 are planned, approved, and sanctioned from this office.

“Once reconstructed, the old MCG office will become a zonal office, similar to its office in Gurugram Sector 42 where the MCG’s zone 3 departments are based, also making space for both zone 2 and zone 1 offices temporarily. The zone 4 office will be based in Sector 34,” said a senior MCG official, requesting anonymity.

The zone 1 departments will operate from Sector 14, near Vyapar Kendra on MG Road, once the MCG’s main office is set up there, and the MCG office in Civil Lines will solely cater to zone 2 related work. The MCG is also planning to build a 10-storey office -- its headquarters -- in Sector 14, the MCG official added.

Since its establishment in 2008, the Civil Lines office was the MCG headquarters till 2015. However, the Sector 34 office became its headquarters in 2015 when the civic body shifted most of its departments there. “After most of the offices were shifted to the Sector 34 office, the Civil Lines office became an afterthought. Symbolically, it is an office, but largely, it is just a glorified CFC with view departments and a joint commissioner’s office. The entire building is crumbling. The ceiling has partially collapsed thrice this year. Rainwater enters offices during monsoon, and even the office staff does not get any space for parking their vehicles,” said an official from the Civil Lines MCG office.

According to the official Gurgaon district gazetteer, a class II municipal committee was formed in the city in 1950 and it was upgraded to a class I municipal committee in 1969. Though the gazetteer mentioned the presence of a municipal office park in the city around that time, it did not specify the location of the municipal office.

The Civil Lines office was built a few years after the formation of the municipal committee, around the time the Civil hospital -- on the opposite side -- was constructed in 1977. However, this could not be verified, said MCG officials.