The central axis of New Delhi with gardens and buildings around India Gate and Raisina Hill are now giving way to the govt’s Central Vista Project. How will this area look like once it is completed?
The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has been allocated Rs 2,600 crore in Union Budget 2022-23 for the construction of non-residential office buildings of the Central Vista redevelopment project, including the Parliament and Supreme Court. This is Rs 767.56 crore more than Rs 1,833.43 crore given in the last fiscal. For residential purposes, the ministry has been given Rs 873.02 crore. The Central Vista is India’s central administrative area located in New Delhi. During the colonial era, leading British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker had designed the Central Vista complex.
It was inaugurated in 1931 and comprised Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament House, North and South Blocks and the Record Office, which was later named as The National Archives, along with the India Gate monument and the civic gardens on either side of the Rajpath. The redevelopment of Central Vista was conceived in September 2019, involving multiple projects spread over six years and estimated to cost Rs 20,000 crore. Facing flak from opposition over it, the government said that a new parliament building was needed as the current one dates back to the 1920s and shows signs of “distress and over-use”.
The planned redevelopment works include the new triangular Parliament building, Chambers for Members of Parliament, the Central Vista Avenue, 10 buildings of the Common Central Secretariat, Central Conference Centre, Additional Buildings for National Archives, new Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts building, facilities for security officials, and official residences for the Vice President, Prime Minister, Executive Enclave with Prime Minister’s Office, Cabinet Secretariat, National Security Council Secretariat
