upcoming parlament of india

New parlament :

New Parliament complex may seat 1,350 members

The new Parliament complex, which has an earlier deadline, 2022, will be among the first plans to be finalised and tendered out, perhaps in the first half of this year .

A new Lok Sabha central hall big enough to house 900 Members of Parliament (MPs), and flexible enough to house up to 1,350 MPs for a joint Parliament session will be the centrepiece of the Central Vista redevelopment plan that has a deadline of 2024.

The new Parliament complex, which has an earlier deadline, 2022, will be among the first plans to be finalised and tendered out, perhaps in the first half of this year itself. The current design of an evolving plan envisages a triangular complex, with a tricoloured beam lighting up the sky overhead. And at a more mundane level, the MPs will sit comfortably in broad two-seater benches, accessible from either side so that no one will have to squeeze through — and which can, when a joint session is held, accommodate three.

The redevelopment will also see North and South Block, which house ministries, becoming museums; the creation of a central secretariat, and a redesigned Rajpath.

According to presentations made by the Ahmedabad-based HCP Design, the new triangular Parliament building will come up next to the existing complex, the Indira Gandhi National Centre of Arts will be relocated with some of the new government buildings coming up where it is located, and the National Archives will be remodelled. The Prime Minister’s residence will be shifted behind the existing South Block complex while the residence of the Vice President will move behind North Block.

First off the blocks will be the new Parliament complex and the government offices at IGNCA. The former will come up on 13 acres within the existing Parliament complex. And it will be much bigger than the current one, where the Lok Sabha hall simply can’t fit any more MPs. And there may soon be a need to.

New Complex :

Barring a constitutional amendment, India will revisit a decision on the size of the Lok Sabha in 2026. In an article in Hindustan Times in March 2019, political scientists Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson projected that the Lok Sabha may need to have 848 members by 2026 to keep the spirit of proportional representation. Accordingly, the new complex is aimed to house 900 MPs. In December 2019, former President Pranab Mukherjee called for almost doubling the strength of the Lok Sabha to 1,000 lawmakers from the current 545.

According to Bimal Patel, the architect in charge of the redesign of Central Vista, the plan is to also create a separate lounge. Currently, the Central Hall functions as one, although it is not designed for the purpose. There may even be office space for MPs.

The current plan, according to Patel, “the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and, an open-to-sky courtyard around which there would be a lounge and in the middle there will be a foyer.” The offices will be along the periphery of the building.”

Seating Arrangement :

Patel and his team studied seating arrangements in Parliaments of several countries including Cuba, Egypt, Singapore, and Germany. MPs have often complained of lack of space, especially during joint sessions.

There’s no space to be had in the current Lok Sabha. There are even seats “behind columns”, Patel said. A parliamentarian gets around 40cm by 50 cm of space to sit in the house now. This will increase to 60 by 60 under the new arrangement.

More importantly, Patel, pointed out, everyone gets a desk. “Currently, the desks are only for the first two rows. You can put your iPads or files on them.” And, of course, with two to a bench, “you really never have to go in front of anybody to sit down. That really is the most comfortable way to manage it,” he added. For joint sessions the desks will accommodate three MPs instead of two.

Symbolism :

The shape of the present circular building designed by architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker in 1912-13, was based on the Chausath Yogini temple, one of the oldest heritage sites in India.

Explaining the reason behind choosing a triangular structure for the new complex, Patel said,“One reason is functional: it’s triangular plot. Triangles are also very important in some sense. They are celebrated in all sacred geometries...; Why a spire atop the new Parliament? Think of churches, think of temples etc. In a secular democracy a sacred building is the Parliament and so famously referred to as the temple of democracy by the Prime Minister.”

Interestingly, the new design envisages windows of various sizes in Central Hall.

“We are making windows that will be of unequal size inside the hall. Why we are doing that? This reflects the diversity of India, everything is different here and hence not a single window should be the same in this room,” Patel said.

Technology

“Technology-wise we are looking at visual and acoustic factors. Acoustic is really important. Presently the acoustic tiles were put in afterwards. That time the rudimentary concept was to avoid echoing. Actually a sophisticated acoustic design is about the quality of sound you produce. That is best understood by acoustic engineers...we have a very good company which is full of physicists doing this,” Patel explained. There will also be in-built translation systems, he added.

Photo gallery :

What we know about the new Parliament building so far:

# 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.

# 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.

# 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.

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# 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 existing Parliament building will be conserved as an archaeological asset of the country.

Information by. Shubham savaliya