Mangaluru: Moodbidri MLA Umanath Kotian paid visit to DC’s new office, which is being constructed at Padil and informed that a meeting will be convened shortly in the presence of MP and MLAs in the city soon so as to speed up the work.

Visiting the site on Sunday, MLA Kotian informed that civil works of the building are almost over and another year may be required to finish all the pending works.

He recalled that though the construction work was started way back in 2014, the works were halted due to various reasons.

“After rectifying the problems, construction work was started in 2018. The new building will have an area of 2.26 lakh square feet. The office would shelter around 38 offices of different departments. The building has also facilities like mini auditorium, DC’s court hall, offices for minister and MP, canteen among others. Parking facilities will also be provided to over 200 vehicles at the new building.

Initially, it was estimated that the building would come up at the cost of Rs 41 crore. Later, it was decided to spend Rs 55 crore. Though Rs 32 crore has been spent on the building, state government has released only Rs 24 crore so far, informed MLA Kotian and added that this will come up as an ideal DC office in the entire state.

He also informed that there was a proposal to use the existing DC office as smart city project office, which is now functioning out of Mangaluru City Corporation building.