Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of new Parliament building Thursday. (Source: Twitter/@BJP4India)Parliament New Building Foundation HIGHLIGHTS: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today laid the foundation stone for the new Parliament building, which is expected to be completed by 2022 at an estimated cost of Rs 971 crore. Speaking on the occasion, the PM said the new Parliament building would exemplify ‘co-existence of the new and the old’ and would be a witness to ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.
Pujaris from the Sringeri Math Karnataka did the rituals for the ‘bhoomi pujan’ at the new Parliament building site. However, no construction can immediately begin as various pleas against the project are pending before the Supreme Court.
In the new building, the Lok Sabha chamber will have 888 seats while there will be 384 seats in the Rajya Sabha chamber. Currently, the strength of Lok Sabha is 543 and that of Rajya Sabha 245. During a joint session, the new Lok Sabha chamber will be able to accommodate 1224 members. The new building will not have a Central Hall. The building, which is going to come up in an area of 64,500 sq m at a cost of Rs 971 crore, will be earthquake-resistant, and adaptable to the most modern digital technology. It will incorporate indigenous architecture from different parts of the country, and showcase cultural diversity.
The existing Parliament building will be conserved as it is an archaeological asset of the country, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said.
The foundation stone of the existing Parliament House was laid on February 12, 1921
Amid the continuing standoff between farmers and the Centre over the contentious farm laws, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday invoked the teachings of Guru Nanak, asserting that “dialogue must go on”.
The PM made the remark during his address at the ground-breaking and foundation stone laying ceremony of the new Parliament building, which is projected to come up by 2022 at a cost of Rs 971 crore.
“Apart from governance, democracy has always been a medium to resolve differences of opinion. Differences strengthen a democracy. While there should be space for differences, there should not be any disconnect,” Modi said.
Citing the teachings of Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, the PM said, “Guru Nanak had said, jabtak sansar rage, tabtak sambad rahe (so long as the world exists, dialogue must go on). Speaking and listening is at the heart of dialogue. This is the soul of democracy. There can be differences in policies and politics but there should not be any differences in the end goal of serving people.”
(Report by Sourav Roy Barman)
Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new Parliament building.
PM Modi: "Policies may vary, differences may occur. But we are for the service of the public, there should be no differences in this ultimate goal. Debates are held within Parliament or outside Parliament. The determination to serve the nation, dedication to the national interest should be reflected constantly."
PM Modi: "Usually, discussions on democracy mostly revolve around elections, governance. However in India, democracy forms the soul of the nation, it is a way of life. Jeevantatva bhi hai, jeevantantra bhi hai."
"Differences strengthen democracy. There should be space for differences, not disconnect."
PM Modi: "Today, just as the National War Memorial has created a new identity beyond India Gate, the new Parliament House will establish its own identity. The coming generations will be proud to see the new Parliament House that is built in independent India. It is built after commemorating 75 years of independence."
PM Modi: "People of the country will take pride in the building. During independence, doubts were raised on the future of the nation. Forecasts were made that democracy will not be successful in India. Today we can say with pride that we have proved the naysayers wrong."
PM Modi: "The building is now looking to retire. It is incumbent upon all of us to give 21st century India a new Parliament Building. And this is a step towards achieving that.
"The new building will be fitted with advanced technology. Even common people, who want to share their grievances with their representatives, face trouble in the existing building due to paucity of space. The new building will have space for every MP to meet and address the issues of their constituents visiting them. The new building will fulfill the desire and aspirations of 21st century India."
PM Modi: This is a historic day. This is a milestone in the country's history. The people of the country will build the new parliament together. New Parliament building will exemplify the coexistence of the new and the old.
I will never forget the day I entered the parliament for the first time in 2014. This is the same building where our constitution was drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar and our founding fathers. Every legislation drawn up in this building is our pride. But we need to accept the reality as well. This building is nearly 100 years old. There have been relentless repair work over the years to keep it up and running.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on new Parliament building: "Prime Minister Narendra Modi today laid the foundation stone of the 'Temple of Democracy', New Parliament House and Central Vista Project, in Delhi. On this auspicious occasion, I wish him and the people of the country all the best. This sequence of public welfare will continue."
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan on new Parliament building: "The laying of foundation stone for a 'New Parliament for New India' today by Hon. PM Shri @narendramodi will be a historic moment for our vibrant democracy. The state-of-the-art new premises of our temple of democracy will also be an epitome of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
"The current Parliament House building having more than 93 years of democratic heritage drew its design inspiration from the Chausath Yogini Temple in Madhya Pradesh. The sacred building was witness to the first meeting of the Central Legislative Assembly on 19th January 1927."
Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa on new Parliament building: "History is made as PM @narendramodi Ji laid the foundation stone for the New Parliament. The new Parliament will be a majestic representation of world's oldest civilisation and largest democracy blending it's cultural diversity and modern infrastructure."
On the ground-breaking ceremony of the new Parliament building, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said it is a "glorious day for the country".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday laid the foundation stone of the new Parliament building here at an event that was attended by leaders from various political parties, cabinet ministers and ambassadors of different countries. Modi also performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the building, which is expected to be completed by 2022. Pujaris from the Sringeri Math Karnataka did the rituals for the 'bhoomi pujan' at the new Parliament building site.
# An adjacent building, which will come up on the site of Shram Shakti Bhavan, will have rooms for all MPs, and will be connected via an underpass.
# The building will be earthquake-resistant, and adaptable to the most modern digital technology.
# Provisions will be made in the furniture for smart displays, biometrics for ease of voting, digital language interpretation or translation systems, and recording infrastructure to produce real-time metadata and programmable microphones.
# Interiors of the halls will be fitted with virtual sound simulations to set the right levels of reverberation sound and limit the echo.
# It will incorporate indigenous architecture from different parts of the country, and showcase the cultural diversity.
# Around 2,000 people will be directly involved in its construction, while another 9,000 will be there indirectly.
# More than 200 artists from various parts of the country will also work for the building.
# The new Parliament complex will have four floors — lower ground, upper ground, first and second floors.
# A total of 120 office spaces, including committee rooms, major offices of the ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Lok Sabha Secretariat, Rajya Sabha secretariat, offices of the Prime Minister, some MPs and offices for staff and security personnel will be housed in the new Parliament. It will also have a reading room for MPs. It will not have a Central Hall.
# Lok Sabha chamber, which will come up on 3,015 square metre area, will have 888 seats instead of present 543 seats spread over an area of 1,145 square metre.
# Rajya Sabha chamber, spread over an area of 3,220 square metre, will have 384 seats against its current strength of 245 seats on 1,232 square metre area.
# During a joint session, the new Lok Sabha chamber will be able to accommodate 1,224 members.
# MPs will be seated in two-seater benches, which can accommodate three in case of joint sessions, in a horseshoe pattern in front of the Speaker.
# The seats will be 60 cm wide and 40 cm tall, bigger than the present seats that have a width of 45 cm and height of 40 cm.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today laid the foundation stone for the new Parliament building, which is expected to be completed by 2022 at an estimated cost of Rs 971 crore. However, no construction can immediately begin as various pleas against the project are pending before the Supreme Court.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new Parliament building
Once the construction of the new Parliament House begins, the iconic statue of Mahatma Gandhi, perhaps the most identifiable symbol of India’s Parliament after the building itself, will be shifted to a temporary location — to be kept safe, and to be eventually brought back to the premises.
Parliament House officials told The Indian Express that the statue would be placed at the main entrance of the new building, once it was complete.
If statues could record the goings-on before them, this 16-foot bronze statue of the Father of the Nation would be among the most valuable repositories of India’s contemporary history. The Mahatma, seated in lotus position, has been a mute witness to both intense, thought-provoking debates as well as cacophonies — uproarious protests and slogan shouting — in Parliament for close to three decades. And a large number of lawmakers have at one time or the other over the years stood or squatted at the statue in symbolic protest.
The proposal to revamp Parliament is not new — at least two Speakers of Lok Sabha have earlier officially underlined the need to upgrade Parliament House, or to build a new structure.
In March 2016, The Indian Express reported that the Lok Sabha Secretariat had received no response from the Ministry of Urban Development to a letter that then Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had written three months previously to then Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, urging that a new Parliament building should be constructed.
In 2015, the then Speaker Sumitra Mahajan wrote: “Being a heritage Grade-I building, there are several limitations on structural repairs, additions, alterations and modifications to the (Parliament House) building… Present seating capacity of Lok Sabha Chamber is 550 and there is no scope for increasing the seating capacity any further.” She pitched for a paperless Parliament: “We have plans to equip our MPs with latest gadgets to enable them to make the best possible use of technological tools available and also make our Parliament paperless.” Mahajan also suggested some sites where the new Parliament building could come up.
# The project of building the new Parliament Building has been given to Tata Projects Ltd.
# The design has been prepared by HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt Ltd.
# Date of start of construction: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will do a bhoomi pujan at 1 pm on December 10. Construction of the building will start soon after.
# Completion year: The project is expected to be ready by 2022.
# The building is to come up on 64,500 square metre area.
# The total cost is estimated at Rs 971 crore.
# The building will have six entrances: A ceremonial entrance for the President and Prime Minister; one for the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, and MPs; a ceremonial entrance in general; another entrance for MPs; and two public entrances.
# The new Parliament complex will have four floors — lower ground, upper ground, first and second floors.