Race against time to complete new Parliament building by March 2023
Senior government officials said shifting to the new building in the first half of the budget session in February might be an ambitious target, but that it may be possible to shift to a fully-functional new Parliament building for the second half of the budget session
New Delhi: It’s a race against time to complete the new Parliament building, with the government keen to open the new building in the coming budget session that starts in January, and with a break in the middle, goes on till March.
Senior government officials directly involved in the project, part of the government’s ambitious ₹13,500-crore Central Vista Redevelopment Project, said on condition of anonymity that shifting to the new building in the first half of the budget session in February might be an ambitious target, but that it may be possible to shift to a fully-functional new Parliament building for the second half of the budget session.
The original deadline for the completion of the new Parliament building — the ongoing winter session of the parliament was to be held in the new building — was missed but efforts are being made to complete it by the end of January before the budget session commences, said one of the officials familiar.
Another, senior parliament official added: “During our interactions, we told the agencies involved in the construction that the building should be preferably ready by early 2023. But we haven’t got any assurance from them yet.”
The project is directly being supervised by the urban affairs minister Hardeep Puri .
HT reached out to Puri for a comment, but it was not immediately available.
The Central Public Works Department (CPWD), the nodal agency for the new Parliament building and Central Vista redevelopment project, is carrying out the work. CPWD is the nodal agency and the TATA Projects Limited is constructing the new building.
According to two senior housing and urban affairs ministry officials, the work on the lower ground and ground floor (where the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and the MPs’ lounge will be located) is nearing completion. “In the new Lok Sabha, the carpeting work is over and the furniture is being installed. In the Rajya Sabha, the carpeting work is going on. The work on the ground and lower ground floor will be completed by January,” added one of them.
The work on the first and second floors (which will have offices) of the four-storeyed new Parliament building will take time. “It is a big project and the building is almost ready in such a short span of time. Though the construction work was to start in September 2020, we could start the work only in January 2021. Shifting utilities took a lot of time. It was not an easy task to carry out the construction, given all the constraints,” added the other.
His reference is to the Covid-19 pandemic which affected most activities across the country, and, indeed, across the world, with many supply chains breaking down. The Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year has made things worse. For instance, the delivery of the multimedia system and IT network switches for the project was delayed due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on supply chains, said the second urban affairs ministry official. “We have received the order, but before the multimedia equipment is installed, we have to ensure that the space is dust-free. Though it will not take much time to install it, the system has to be tested post-installation, which is a time consuming process. As for IT switches, we have procured some and are trying to arrange for more as there is also a shortage of IT switches,” added the first urban affairs ministry official.
IT switches are multi-port computer network switches that are the backbone of the IT infrastructure of any workspace.
The construction work of the road connecting the new and the old Parliament building is going on and will be completed by January. “A portion of the road was constructed before the winter session,” said the second urban affairs ministry official. The built-up space is 64,500 sq.m and the ₹971-crore building will have additional seating space in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha is expected to be able to accommodate at least 888 representatives. However, this exercise was supposed to be carried out on the basis of the 2021 census, work on which is yet to begin.
The senior parliament official cited above said that construction agencies are informally in touch with the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariat. Apart from the 2023 budget — the last full budget of this government before the 2024 general elections— parliament authorities are keen to host a meeting of the P20, the parliamentary wing of the G20 in the new building next year. India took over the presidency of the G20 in December.