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New Parliament to cost ₹971 crore, Centre informs Parliament
Hardeep Puri said that In the current economic scenario, the project will generate large number of direct and indirect employment.
The estimated cost for construction of the new Parliament building will run up to ₹971 crore, Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Puri informed the Parliament on Tuesday. This means that the present estimated cost has shot up by at least ₹82 crore than the Centre’s initial estimate in the tender for the new Parliament.
The tender for construction of the new Parliament Building is under scrutiny while architectural plans for other buildings are in the planning stage, Puri said in response to a question raised by All India Trinamool Congress(AITC) MP Mala Roy in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
“The estimated cost for construction of new Parliament building is ₹971 crore. Estimated cost of other buildings and development/ redevelopment of Central Vista Avenue shall be worked out after finalization of plans,” Puri said.
Last week, Tata Projects Limited had emerged as the lower of the two bidders for the tender for constructing the new Parliament complex by quoting ₹861.90 crore, when the financial bids for the project opened last Wednesday. According to the Central Public Works Department’s (CPWD) tender, the estimated cost of construction for the new building is ₹889 crore.
In response to a question from Roy seeking ‘the rationale behind the project in light of the fact that economy is in doldrums’; Puri said that the ‘facilities and amenities of the 93-year-old existing Parliament building “are highly inadequate to meet the current demand of the Parliament.’
The Central Vista redevelopment project has come under criticism from different quarters. While the Opposition has called for suspending around ₹20,000 crore project due to the pandemic, some conservationists have argued that it would change the historic nature of Lutyens’ Delhi.
“This building is already 93 years old and has since been declared heritage grade-I building. Its facilities and amenities are highly inadequate to meet the current demand of the Parliament. There is acute shortage of office space and there are no individual chambers for Members of Parliament. This building was not meant to be for bicameral Parliament and has been over-stressed through large scale retrofitting done over the years,” Puri said.
Puri said that In the current economic scenario, the project will generate large number of direct and indirect employment.
