The new parliament building will have an area of 64,500 square metres and will be earthquake resistant. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said as many as 1,224 MPs can sit together in the building.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of a new Parliament building on Thursday at an event that will be attended by leaders from various political parties, cabinet ministers and ambassadors of various countries. The foundation stone laying ceremony will begin at 12:55pm today and the bhoomi poojan and foundation stone laying ceremony will take place at 1pm.
Here are the latest updates on the inauguration of the new Parliament building today:
• PM Modi will perform the ground-breaking ceremony for the building, which is expected to be completed by 2022 at an estimated cost of Rs 971 crore. He will also deliver a speech today at 2:15pm. The PMO said that the new building is an intrinsic part of the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and will be a landmark opportunity to build peoples’ Parliament for the first time after independence.
• The new parliament building will have an area of 64,500 square metres and will be earthquake resistant. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said as many as 1,224 MPs can sit together in the building, while a new office complex for all MPs of both the houses would be built at the site of the existing Shram Shakti Bhawan.
• The Supreme Court on Monday had expressed displeasure with the Centre’s move to go ahead with the construction of the Central Vista project, questioning it for “moving forward aggressively” on the project even before a decision on petitions challenging it. The SC clarified that the fact that there is no stay doesn’t mean construction can go on. “You can lay the foundation stone, you can carry on paperwork but no construction or demolition, no cutting down any trees,” the Supreme Court told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.
• The new building will also have a grand Constitution Hall to showcase India’s democratic heritage, a lounge for members of Parliament, a library, multiple committee rooms, dining areas and ample parking space. In the new building, the Lok Sabha chamber will have a seating capacity for 888 members, while Rajya Sabha will have 384 seats for the upper house members.
• In September this year, Tata Projects Limited won the bid to construct the new parliament building under the Central Vista redevelopment project. The existing Parliament House building will be suitably retro-fitted to provide more functional spaces for parliamentary events, to ensure its usage along with the new building.
• The foundation stone of the existing Parliament House was laid on February 12, 1921 and the construction took six years and cost Rs 83 lakh at that time. The opening ceremony was performed on January 18, 1927 by the then Governor-General of India, Lord Irwin.
