• Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the new Parliament building on December 10. 

• The new building, being constructed by Tata Projects Ltd, will come up in front of the existing Parliament House that was built nearly 100 years ago.

• The construction is expected to be completed by the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence and is estimated to cost Rs 971 crore.

Features of the new Parliament building

• Indian Parliament’s new building will have a triangular shape, while its interiors will have three national symbols as their main themes — Lotus, Peacock and Banyan Tree.

• It will house larger Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Halls, with capacities of 888 seats and 384 seats respectively, to accommodate an expanded Parliament after the freeze on its expansion lifts in 2026. The Lok Sabha Hall will also have additional capacity, up to 1272 seats, to host joint sessions.

• The construction of the new Parliament building will utilise resource-efficient green technology, promote environment-friendly practices, generate employment opportunities and contribute towards economic revitalisation.

• The building will comply with the highest structural safety standards, including adherence to Seismic Zone 5 requirements and is designed for ease of maintenance and operations.

• The Lok Sabha chamber will have the national bird Peacock as its theme. In Rajya Sabha chamber it will have the national flower Lotus as its theme. The Central Lounge courtyard will have the national tree Banyan as its theme.

• The National Emblem will crown the new Parliament building. 

• The ceiling of the new Parliament building will have fresco paintings like that of Rashtrapati Bhawan and carpets will have traditional designs, instead of the current single colour carpets.

• Dholpur stone will be largely used, as is the case with the existing Parliament, and in some interior portions, red granite may be used in place of the red sandstone.

• The four-storey building will be built on a 64,500 square metres area.

• The new building has been designed by Ahmedabad-based HCP Design and Management Pvt Limited and the construction would be carried out by Tata Projects Ltd.

• It will be equipped with all modern audio-visual communication facilities and data network systems. 

• Along with necessary facilities like committee rooms, major offices of the ministry of parliamentary affairs, Lok Sabha Secretariat and Rajya Sabha Secretariat, and appropriate dining facilities, it will also include publicly accessible museum-grade galleries and exhibits. 

• The central Constitution Hall and Gallery will showcase the Indian Constitution and other artefacts of India’s heritage, symbolically and physically putting people at the heart of Indian democracy.

• Provisions in the furniture will be made for smart displays and biometrics for ease of voting with an intuitive and graphical interface, digital language interpretation and recording infrastructure to produce real-time metadata, programmable microphones that put the control of managing the house with the Speaker. 

• The new Parliament building’s architecture and aesthetics will take reference from the present Parliament building, other buildings of the Central Vista, and the classical, folk and tribal arts and crafts of India. 

• After the new building is completed, the present building will be appropriately retrofitted and refurbished as per heritage conservation standards, and the two will be used in conjunction. 

Some facts on present Parliament building

• The iconic circular Parliament building has been witness to historic and epoch-changing events — be it revolutionaries Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throwing bombs to “wake up” the colonial rulers, the meeting of the Constituent Assembly or the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru making his famous “tryst with destiny” speech on the midnight of August 14-15, 1947.

• The existing building is a British-era building, designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker who were responsible for planning and construction of New Delhi.

• The foundation stone of the existing Parliament House was laid on February 12, 1921, and the construction took six years. The opening ceremony was performed on January 18, 1927, by the then Governor-General of India, Lord Irwin.

• The building has been witness to historic debates, momentous legislations and the growth of India’s vibrant democracy. It also braved the 2001 attack by terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), in which nine people were killed inside the Parliament complex.

• The current Parliament House building is a massive circular edifice 560 feet in diameter and the open verandah on the first floor is fringed with a colonnade of 144 creamy sandstone columns, each of 27 feet.

• The focus of the building is the big circular edifice of the Central Hall. On the three axes radiating from this centre are placed the three Chambers for Lok Sabha (House of the People), Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the erstwhile Library Hall (formerly the Chamber of Princes) and between them lie the garden courts.

• The Supreme Court of India also functioned from the erstwhile Chamber of Princes after it was inaugurated on January 28, 1950, till it moved to the present building in 1958.

• The Central Hall is a place of great historical significance as the transfer of power on the midnight of August 14-15 from British to Indian hands took place in this hall. 

• The Indian Constitution was also framed in the Central Hall. The Constituent Assembly met there from December 9, 1946, to January 24, 1950.

Central Vista development plan

• The Central Vista covers a three km stretch, starting from Rashtrapati Bhavan up to India Gate. It is the heart of the capital city which has been a point of attraction for visitors from all over the world.

• The buildings on Raisina Hills were constructed in the period from 1911 to 1931, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker. At that time, they were designed to have offices for the Viceroy and the Secretariat. The Parliament building was constructed during the same period. Various buildings along Rajpath have been constructed at different stages for accommodating offices of various central ministries and departments.

• The Narendra Modi government has prepared a blueprint for its ambitious plan to redevelop Central Vista — the nation’s power corridor.

Pleas against Central Vista project in Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court allowed the Centre to proceed with the foundation stone-laying ceremony for the Central Vista project after the government assured it that no construction or demolition work would commence till the apex court decides the pending pleas on the issue.

• The top court is hearing several pleas on the issue against various permissions given to the project by authorities including the nod to change of land use.

• The pleas have also challenged the grant of a no-objection certificate by the Central Vista Committee (CVC) and also the environmental clearances for the construction of a new parliament house building.  

• The bench observed that it would not allow construction or demolition till its decision on the pending pleas opposing the project. The top court said however that the Centre can proceed with the requisite paperwork in the meantime. 

• It had made it clear that the fate of the project, which includes several new government buildings and a new Parliament House, will depend on its decision.

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