Work on new Parliament will continue for a few more months, say officials

In a tweet, he said the building was “still under construction” and that President Droupadi Murmu’s address to the joint session of both Houses on January 31 would be held in the existing Parliament House.

The New Parliament Building is still under construction. During Budget Session, the Hon’ble President will address Members of two Houses in the existing Parliament House Building.

— Om Birla (@ombirlakota) January 20, 2023

The Speaker did not mention if the Budget Speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1 will be held in the existing Parliament or not, nor did he address the issue of the venue of the rest of the Budget Session.

According to the officials of the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry and the Lok Sabha Secretariat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, while the Lok Sabha chamber in the new building is nearly completed, the first and second floors, that will house offices of Ministers and the Parliament secretariat, would take many months more to complete.

One of the officials said the delay of the import of network switches, which are required to connect multiple devices in a building like computers, servers and printers, had been addressed by the vendor in question.

However, another official said the process of completion of the building, including its network rooms, would take many more months. A third official said while efforts were on to get the Lok Sabha chamber ready to host the second part of the Budget Session, offices of senior functionaries would only be shifted from the existing Parliament House once the building works are completed.

Construction of the triangular-shaped new Parliament building in a plot adjacent to the existing Parliament House began in January 2021, with the deadline of November 2022 announced by the government.

The project, which is being carried out by Tata Projects Ltd, was designed by HCP Design, Planning and Management led by architect Bimal Patel, which is the government’s design consultant for the Central Vista revamp.

As per the proposed masterplan, the new Parliament building will be have a 10-building Common Central Secretariat, new houses for the Prime Minister and Vice-President and an Executive Enclave that includes the Prime Minister’s Office, built along the 3-km-stretch from Rashtrapati Bhavan till India Gate.