The construction work of the New Parliament Building is going on under the Central Vista Redevelopment Project. The project started in the year 2020. Since then the photographs of the under-construction Parliament House are being uploaded from time to time on the official website of Central Vista at centralvista.gov.in.
This week in the Progress section of the website several new photographs including the one of the Lok Sabha Chamber were uploaded to the website on 16 January. But on Thursday the photo was removed from the site after the new photos were widely used by the media. The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, which maintains the site, removed them citing security concerns.
In fact, the previous photographs of the project site have also been removed from the website. Also, the progress section was completely removed by Friday evening.
The budget will be presented in the old Parliament House itself.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the new building of the Parliament of India on 10 December. Then the Lok Sabha Secretariat had expressed the hope that the new Parliament House would be built by October 2022. In such a situation, it was being said that the budget session-2023-24 would be held in the new Parliament House. However, on Friday evening, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla made it clear by tweeting that President Draupadi Murmu’s address in the budget session will be held in the present building of Parliament.
Om Birla has written, “The new building of Parliament is still under construction. Honorable President’s address in the budget session will be held in the present building of the Parliament. Explain that before the beginning of the budget session, the President’s address takes place in the joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in the Central Hall of Parliament.
What is Central Vista Project?
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs had envisaged the Central Vista Redevelopment Project in the year 2019. Under this project, the North and South blocks will be converted into museums and new buildings will be constructed in their place.
A new triangular shaped parliament building is also being built under this project. Initially, the entire project was expected to cost Rs 20,000 crore. About Rs 971 crore is likely to be spent on the construction of the new Parliament House.
Why is the new Parliament House being built?
The current Parliament House seats 543 members of the Lok Sabha and 245 members of the Rajya Sabha. The government says that after 2026, according to the population, the number of constituencies will increase. This will also increase the number of members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The present Parliament House will then become small. Apart from this, the facilities and infrastructure of the Parliament House are also not sufficient to meet the current demand.
What will happen to the old Parliament House?
In one of its reports, the BBC has quoted officials as saying that the existing Parliament House will be used for parliamentary events. Apart from this, the old Parliament House will also be preserved as a museum so that the coming generation can be told about the democratic journey of the country.
