The Narendra Modi Government will build a new Parliament complex, a new Central Secretariat for all Ministries, and redevelop the 3-km stretch from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate. The Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) Ministry said that a request for proposal (RFP) was floated on September 2 to invite design and architecture firms to give their ideas.
Sources in the Ministry said the Government has not yet decided whether to go for a new Parliament building or redevelop the existing one.
The HUA Ministry has uploaded a RFP for redevelopment of the Central Vista, which will include all offices. The pre-bid meeting was held on Thursday, officials said. October 15 is the deadline to select the design firm.
“The HUA Ministry has invited architecture firms to redevelop the Central Vista, a 3-km stretch from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate, and construct a new common Central Secretariat. By August 2022, the Monsoon Session will be held in a new or a retrofitted building. By next year, the Central Vista will be redeveloped and the Common Secretariat will be built by 2024,” officials said. “There will be no change in North and South Blocks building. The heritage and cultural value of this area will remain intact,” officials added.
On the development of the Central Secretariat, the Centre will be able to save over Rs 1,000 crore that is currently being spent to house staff in private buildings per annum. The Central Government Ministries are currently spread over 47 buildings in Lutyens’ Delhi, housing various Ministries, departments where 70,000 employees of the Central Government work.
The selected architecture or infrastructure firm by the HUA Ministry will be tasked to come up with a plan and give suggestions on whether the existing Parliament complex can be redeveloped or an additional structure will be required and if a new Central Secretariat for all Ministries can be constructed, officials said.
On the redevelopment of the central vista, the officials said most of the buildings in the area are more than 40 to 50 years old and have either “outlived” or approaching their structural lives. The entire central vista area will be designed with smart city features to the extent possible, including upgrade of public facilities and parking as per a plan.
Modi had stated that the Government was considering suggestions to modernise the 92-year-old Parliament building or construct a new structure to coincide with the 75 years of Independence in 2022 while inaugurating the newly-constructed duplex flats for parliamentarians at the North Avenue complex last month. During the extended Budget Session, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had made suggestions for a modern Parliament building as the heritage building was showing signs of wear and tear.
Insiders said that when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, then Speaker Manohar Joshi initiated a move to have a new building constructed on the ground that the existing one suffered from “Vaastu dosha”. In October 2002, Joshi hired the services of a Vaastu expert who found serious flaws. The very circularity of the building was at the centre of the building’s bad Vaastu, they said.
In December 2015, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had written to then Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu asking him to initiate measures for construction of a new Parliament building. In her letter, she had cited that the existing building was in distress and will not be able to handle growing demands for space in the years to come.
The Parliament building was designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker and was inaugurated on January 18, 1927, by then Viceroy of India Lord Irwin. The construction had begun in 1921 and had cost the exchequer Rs 83 lakh. Before the Independence of India, the building was used for Imperial Legislative Council. The building has been declared as a Heritage Grade I structure by the Government.
