DIVIDED OVER A HOUSE

THE NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDING AND CENTRAL VISTA PROJECT HAVE COURTED CONTROVERSY OVER THE CONCEPT, INTENT AND TIMING

- SONI MISHRA

Sir Herbert Baker, the architect of the Parliament house, had originally envisaged a triangular structure. But Sir Edwin Lutyens, who designed New Delhi, proposed a circular design and prevailed upon his junior to alter the plan. And thus was built the Colosseum-like building, said to have been inspired by the Chausath Yogini Temple in Madhya Pradesh. Then, in 1928, just a year after the building was inaugurated, Lutyens conceptualised a mirror image of it to be constructed at a stone’s throw from the original structure to house the secretariat of the then Council House.

Over nine decades later, as the designs of the new Parliament house, envisioned as a triangular edifice, were unveiled and the foundation of the structure laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the throwback to the past was unmistakable. In its vision and scope though, it is a break from the old and seeks to represent, in Modi’s words, the aspirations of a new India, even as the proposed Parliament building and the Central Vista Project that it is a part of have been mired in controversy. Questions abound with regard to the concept, intent and the procedures adopted. There are also allegations that it is guided by political agenda.

The new Parliament house is grand in scale. A 64,500sqm, four-story building, it will seat 888 members in the Lok Sabha chamber, with an option to increase it to 1,224 seats during joint sessions. The Rajya Sabha chamber will seat 384. To be built at an estimated cost of ₹971 crore, it is scheduled to be ready in time to commemorate India’s 75th Independence Day in 2022.