Mumbai:
Exactly a year after the top four floors of the imposing Maharashtra secretariat building in Mumbai were gutted in a major fire, the state government said on Friday it would take another three months for the four floors to be ready for occupation.
This is despite a senior minister's claim in 2012 that the work would be completed within six months.
The project cost has also gone up and would be "around Rs 230 crore" when work is completed, a senior official said in Mumbai on Friday.
"The renovated top four floors would be ready by mid-September," the official said.
Five people died in the fire that engulfed the building on June 21, 2012, apart from causing extensive damage to the six-storey building.
The Rs 138-crore renovation project was started last November. There was a delay of three months as the lowest bid of Rs 168 crore by Unity Infrastructure was much higher than the state's planned expenditure. The firm later quoted Rs 138 crore and bagged the contract.
The newly renovated building will have advanced fire-fighting systems.