The proceedings of the Parliament of India will shift to the newly constructed building from Tuesday with legislators bidding adieu to the old building. The old parliament building has seen some historic events in the past including the adoption of the Constitution of India.
The building was completed in 1927 and is 96 years old. Over the years, it became inadequate for the requirements of the present day.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday paid tributes to “every brick” of the old building saying that the MPs will step inside the new building with “new hope and confidence”.
However, no the biggest question that emerges is what will happen to the old building once Parliamentary proceedings shift to the new one. Here’s the answer:
Against what you may think, the iconic parliament building, which was designed by British architects Sir Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, and has witnessed not just the struggle for independence, but also the country’s rise following that, will not be demolished.
According to Government sources, the building will be “retrofitted” to provide more functional spaces for parliamentary events, instead of demolishing it. “The historic structure will be conserved, as it is an archaeological asset of the country,” NDTV quoted sources as saying.
In 2021, the then Union minister for housing and urban affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri told the Rajya Sabha that the existing structure would have to be repaired and made available for alternative use.
The national archives will be shifted to the new parliament building for heritage-sensitive restoration, they said. This will also help the old Parliament building in freeing up more space.
Meanwhile, some media reports have also suggested that a part of the old building could be converted into a museum.
It may be noted that the new Parliament building was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the month of May, this year.
The newly constructed mega structure can accommodate 888 members in the Lok Sabha chamber and 300 in the Rajya Sabha chamber. For a joint sitting of both the houses, 1,280 MPs can be seated in the Lok Sabha chamber.
The four-storey building shaped in the form of a triangle has a built-up area of 64,500 square metres. It has three main gates – Gyan Dwar, Shakti Dwar and Karma Dwar – and separate entrances for VIPs, MPs and visitors.
