A New Building for Our Parliament

Nazeer Waris

The new building of India’s  Parliament was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 28.

Triangular in shape and made in red sandstone, it sits next to the old circular Parliament House on the Central Vista of New Delhi which has been renamed as ‘Kartavya Path’. It is built over an area of 64,500 square metres. It has two large halls for Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

The hall for the Lok Sabha can seat 888 members while the hall for the Rajya Sabha will have a seating capacity for 300 members. The current Lok Sabha has 543 members whereas Rajya Sabha has 275 members. It is expected that the number of seats in Lok Sabha will go up after delimitation exercise in 2026.

Delimitation is meant to expand the membership of the houses in proportion to the population which involves reconfiguring the LS constituencies after fixed periods. Last delimitation was held in 1971.

The foundation stone for the new Parliament building was laid by the Prime Minister Modi on December 2020 after the two houses passed a resolution to raise a new building for the Parliament as the old building, constructed in 1927, had space constrains.

The old building will be preserved as ‘Museum of Democracy’. The new Lok Sabha chamber is designed in the likeness of India’s national bird, Peacock. The new Rajya Sabha chamber, on the other hand, bears resemblance with India’s national flower, Lotus.

There is provision for over 1,250 members to sit in the Lok Sabha Hall if a joint sitting of the two houses is required. The new building has six committee rooms where committees appointed by the Parliament meet and transact business. 

There are 92 rooms for the members of the council of ministers. Some facilities such as a dining room, a library and parking spaces are still taking shape. A central courtyard is also coming up where members of the two houses could meet and have exchanges.

The designing of the new building was done by Ahmedabad-based HCP Design and Management and the construction was taken up by Tata Projects.

The initial cost of construction was mentioned as Rs. 971 crore. But the cost escalated to a final bill of Rs. 1,200 crore at the end of the project. It also includes the cost of redesigning the entire central vista.

The new Parliament building is a platinum rated Green Building which means that it harvests rainwater falling on the premises for use. It also recycles the wastewater generated in the building. It is not known if it uses solar power. But it is stated that UPS can meet all the power requirement of the building in case of power outage.

The building is designed to allow specially abled people (whom the Prime Minister had given a new nomenclature ‘divyang’) can access and use the building seamlessly. In a nearby building, 800 chambers are being constructed to be allocated to all members of Parliament. The work is scheduled to be completed in March 2024.

The new building has modern lighting and sound systems and is decorated with handcrafted items from various centres. The carpets have been sourced from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. The bamboo flooring is from Tripura while stone carvings are from Rajasthan.

The old Parliament building was built between 1921 and 1927. It was known as ‘Council House’ during the rule of the British. The foundation stone for the building was laid by Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught in 1921 and the building was inaugurated on January 18, 1927. It had been designed by architect Sir Edward Lutyens and Herbert Baker. It was then known as ‘Imperial Legislative Council’. Nearly 2,500 stonecutters and masons were employed for shaping stones for the Parliament building then.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla met PM Modi last week and invited him to inaugurate the new Parliament building. PM Modi laid the foundation stone of the new Parliament building on December 10, 2020.

The present Parliament building was constructed in 1921 and commissioned in 1927. The almost 100-yearold building is not able to meet the current requirements in terms of space, amenities and technology