Nearly a hundred years after the foundation for the Parliament was laid by Duke of Connaught on February 12, 1921 India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 10 December 2020 laid the foundation stone and Bhoomi Poojan was done for the new Parliament building in India with ‘Sarva Dharma Prarthana.’
The new building would be a four-story Triangular (previously decided as pentagon) shape structure and its interior will have three national symbols – the lotus, the peacock and the banayan tree as theme, with a seating capacity of 1224 and is estimated to cost Rs. 971 crore. It would replace the existing colonial structure which would be completing 100 years in 2021. It is expected that the structure would be completed by 2022, coinciding with 75 years of India’s independence and would symbolise unity in diversity of India and its cultural heritage. The theme of the new building would celebrate the cultural diversity of the country. It would also incorporate regional arts and crafts. Artisans and sculptures from across the country would be employed and when it would be completed the new structure making it a symbol of Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self reliant India).
The structure would be built on an area of 64,500 square meters. The building would have space to accommodate 888 members in Lok Sabha at ground floor and 384 members in Rajya Sabha at first floor. Besides the main entrance, the triangular structure will have a ceremonial entrance and one exclusively for the Speaker Lok Sabha and Chairman Rajya Sabha and for Prime minister and President also, there would be 6 committee rooms. The new building will also have a grand Constitutional Hall to showcase India’s democratic heritage, a lounge for members of Parliament, a library, multiple committee rooms, dining area and this building would be equipped with ultra-modern technology like touch screen at every member’s seat, 100% UPS power backup, biometrics for voting and there would be rain water harvesting in the building and so.
The reasons that why this new building is needed are:
The old existing building would be completing its hundred years in February 2021 and after utilizing it for work in many years showing signs of distress and over utilization.
There would be delimitation of constituencies and there would be allocation of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats in 2026 on population and other basis causing the seats to increase which existing Parliament building will not able to accommodate as it already saturated.
New “People’s Parliament” building would witness a new era of India the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat.’
The need of the new building is to fulfil the future requirements as already 3 new buildings had been added because of the workload and to provide world class and ultra-modern technology.
In September this year, Tata Project Limited won the bid to construct this new Parliament building at a cost of Rs. 869.90 crore. The new Parliament building would be constructed close to the existing one under the Central Vista Redevelopment Project.
This construction of new Parliament building is not a brain child or new idea of this Government, as previous speakers had drawn the attention of the Government to the condition of the Parliament House, which has required crores of rupees from time for maintenance. Actually no one questioning the need of the new Parliament building, other intricacies apart, but all of them are asking, why now. Just the Government should be caution that it should not diverge from its actual work and this construction of new Parliament building must not overshadow need to tackle urgent questions of democracy and Parliament’s efficacy and effectiveness can be increased by implementing the reforms suggested rather does not required enlarging its size. But for now everything would depend on the verdict of the Supreme Court as the construction had yet not started of new “People’s Parliament” building as it is challenged before Supreme Court.
