Bosses of Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) are unlikely to shift to the new office near Kutchery Chowk anytime soon because they are unhappy with the design of the under-construction building worth Rs 36 crore.

Construction and furnishing of the G+8 building are expected to be completed within one and a half months and the RMC had initially planned to shift to the new building soon after that.

The building, whose construction started in March 2018, is located barely 100 metres from the existing RMC office.

A team comprising Ranchi mayor Asha Lakra, deputy mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya, a few ward councillors and senior officials of the RMC visited the site on Saturday.

RMC sources said the mayor and deputy mayor were not impressed with the architecture of the building.

“We had tentatively decided to shift to the new office by the middle of March, but the team that inspected the building was upset,” a senior official of the RMC said.

Councillor of Ward 26 Arun Kumar Jha, who was also part of the visiting team, confirmed the development.

“This is a bizarre and impractical structure. For instance, the top floor was meant to be the board meeting hall. But we were shocked to see that three pillars each with a 40-inch diameter had been constructed right in the middle of the hall. Besides, the ceiling is only eight-feet high. How can one hold meeting there? The RMC was not consulted during the creation of the design,” Jha said.

A project of Jharkhand Urban Infrastructure Development Company (Juidco), the building is being constructed by Calcutta-based company Singhal Enterprises.

It is spread over 74 decimal of land and has a carpet area of one lakh square feet.

The RMC has around 33 different departments, 53 councillors and over 100 employees.

The office of the mayor and municipal commissioner is situated on the first floor of the building. But there is no provision of an exclusive kitchen for the office of the mayor.

Sources in Juidco refuted allegation that the RMC was not consulted while designing the building plan.

“The actual construction and the map may slightly vary. We have constructed the building as per the requirement of the civic body. We are taking a look at the technical details as far as the meeting hall is concerned. If the RMC wishes, we can tweak the design of the hall, but it will be impossible to remove the pillars,” a Juidco official said.