New Parliament gears up to host Monsoon session, gets final touches

The upper ground and first floors of the new building — the key areas for daily functioning — are ready for use

The new Parliament building, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 28, is set to host the upcoming monsoon session, with offices for nearly all political parties present in Parliament identified and key departments told to shift to the new establishment, senior functionaries directly involved with the development said on condition of anonymity.

The parliament building was inaugurated on May 28. (File photo)

The upper ground and first floors of the new building — the key areas for daily functioning — are ready for use, they added. These areas house the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, the Speaker’s and Rajya Sabha Chairman’s offices, the Prime Minister’s Office, and rooms for senior ministers and a few political parties. Finishing touches are being given to the remaining areas, the functionaries said.

“Important departments such as the Table Office, the legislative branch and the Notice Office have been asked to shift to the new building. Officers are being told to get accustomed to their new offices quickly. All this is being done keeping the upcoming session in mind,” said one of them.

The monsoon sessions usually runs from the middle of July to August.

A second functionary said the allotment of offices for political parties will be done next week. “In the new Parliament building nearly all political parties represented in Parliament will get offices (in the current building, only a few parties have dedicated office space).” The offices of ministers will be distributed by the parliamentary affairs ministry and those of the parties , by Speaker Om Birla.

In the existing building, completed in 1927, the Prime Minister’s Office has only two rooms on the ground floor. The SPG operates from a small room at the basement. “There is an urgent need for a bigger space for PMO in the new building. In the old building, top-ranking PMO officials are allotted only a table and a chair,” said a third functionary.

Modi laid the foundation stone of the new parliament building on December 10, 2020, but construction was delayed due to the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. Despite the delay, the Parliament secretariat said, the building has been built in “record time with quality construction”.

The second official added that computers and other instruments are being fitted and the enter exercise “is expected to be over by June.”

HT reported on June 1 that a large number of officials will continue to work from their existing offices and only a few sections will shift to the new building. The second and the third floors of the old building will continue to have parliamentary offices.