India’s new Parliament Building can last 150 years, seat 150% more

bY S VENKAT NARAYAN,

Our Special Correspondent

 NEW DELHI: India will celebrate 75 years of its independence in 2022 with a new triangular Parliament Building in place. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid its foundation stone on December 10. The present circular Parliament House is a century-old beauty, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. 

The new building will have a life of more than 150 years with more than 150% increase in seating capacity, the government said. While the interior of the new Lok Sabha will have the theme of peacock, the national bird, Rajya Sabha will have national flower lotus as its theme.

Besides the two Houses, the building will have a Constitution Hall that will exhibit an original Constitution and a digital form for people to read page-by-page. This will be the only portion of the building that will have no storeys.

The rest of the complex will have four floors. Each floor will have offices of ministers and committee rooms. The first floor will have dining space for member of Parliament, VVIPs and visitors.

It will also have a central lounge. Besides being earthquake proof, the new building will be eco-friendly and consume significantly less power. “The project will be completed in time in 2022 and the winter session will be held here,” says Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

The building will be earthquake-resistant, and adaptable to the most modern digital technology.

Provisions will be made in the furniture for smart displays, biometrics for ease of voting, digital language interpretation or translation systems, and recording infrastructure to produce real-time metadata and programmable microphones.

 Interiors of the halls will be fitted with virtual sound simulations to set the right levels of reverberation sound and limit the echo.

 It will incorporate indigenous architecture from different parts of the country, and showcase the cultural diversity.

 Around 2,000 people will be directly involved in its construction, while another 9,000 will be there indirectly. 

More than 200 artistes from various parts of the country will also work for the building.

The existing Parliament building will be conserved as an archaeological asset of the country.

 The project of building the new Parliament Building has been given to Tata Projects Ltd.

The design has been prepared by HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt Ltd. The building is to come up on a 64,500-square-metre area. The total cost is estimated at INR9.71 billion.

 The building will have six entrances: A ceremonial entrance for the President and Prime Minister; one for the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, and MPs; a ceremonial entrance in general; another entrance for MPs; and two public entrances.

 The new Parliament complex will have four floors — lower ground, upper ground, first and second floors.

 A total of 120 office spaces, including committee rooms, major offices of the ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Lok Sabha Secretariat, Rajya Sabha secretariat, offices of the Prime Minister, some MPs and offices for staff and security personnel will be housed in the new Parliament. It will also have a reading room for MPs. It will not have a Central Hall.

 The Lok Sabha chamber, which will come up on a 3,015-square-metre area, will have 888 seats instead of present 543 seats, spread over an area of 1,145 square metres.

 The Rajya Sabha chamber, spread over an area of 3,220 square metres, will have 384 seats against its current strength of 245 seats on a 1,232-square-metre area.

 During a joint session, the new Lok Sabha chamber will be able to accommodate 1,224 members. The MPs will be seated in two-seater benches, which can accommodate three in case of joint sessions, in a horseshoe pattern in front of the Speaker.

 An adjacent building, which will come up on the site of Shram Shakti Bhavan, will have rooms for all MPs, and will be connected via an underpass.

 The building will be earthquake-resistant, and adaptable to the most modern digital technology. It will incorporate indigenous architecture from different parts of the country, and showcase the cultural diversity.

 Officials said the building will have the most modern security and surveillance system. “The security check will be mostly non-intrusive,” said Bimal Patel, the designer of Central Vista redevelopment project. Dholpur and red stone from Rajasthan will be largely used.