The high-security Government Press at Minto Road will be refurbished at a cost of Rs 338 crore, an initiative that would increase its production capacity from 16 lakh pages per day to 45 lakh pages per day. Union Housing and Urban Affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday laid the foundation stone of the redevelopment of Government of India Press, Minto Road.
The press meets all printing needs of both the houses of Parliament, including day-to-day parliamentary proceedings, question lists, bills, acts, synopsis, reports, debates, who’s who and Parliamentary Committee reports, besides the needs of Cabinet Secretariat and various ministries and departments of the Central government. The “Gazette of India” notifications are published by Department of Publication and are printed by the Government of India Printing Presses regularly.
As the demand for printing material has been going up in each session of the House, the press was reportedly not in a position to cope with day-day-printing facilities. While the machines and equipment being used are of 1980-2005 vintage and some of them installed as early as in 1968, the non-availability of spare parts is posing a hindrance to the smooth functioning of the press.