More than twice the size and labour of over 23,000: the new Parliament building in numbers

Sitting adjacent to the existing Parliament House, the building will be able to accommodate 888 parliamentarians in the Lok Sabha and 300 in the Rajya Sabha, up from the existing 543 and 250, respectively.

Here is a breakdown of the megastructure in numbers:

Built-up area: 58,700 sq m (up over two times from the previous 24,281 sq m).

Total area: 64,500 sq m

Cost estimated: Rs 971 crore

Existing seating capacity: 1,224

Additional seats that can be accommodated: 1,140

Employment generated (in man-days): 23,04,095

Steel used (in metric tonnes): 26,045

Cement used (in metric tonnes): 63,807

Fly ash used (in cubic metre): 9,689

Pieces of art to be displayed: 5,000

The inauguration also comes a hundred years after the construction of the old Parliament House began in 1921 and concluded six years later, in 1927. It was estimated to have cost around Rs 83 lakh.

Besides criticisms over being built amid the tumult of the Covid pandemic, the new Parliament building is at the centre of another controversy after a slew of Opposition parties decided to boycott its inauguration arguing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to inaugurate it himself “completely sidelines” President Droupadi Murmu, insults the high office of the President and violates the spirit of the Constitution.

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