Prime Minister Narendra Modi will now have his own dedicated tunnel road for the movement from his residence to the office and the parliament. Special routes are being designed sighting high-risk of the moment of politicians in between the general public that will end the regular traffic blockades and inconvenience caused during the VIP movements.
Changing the entire parliament building
Bimal Patel sharing the details said that the idea is to free these spaces so that they are more accessible. “PM Modi’s convoy can operate endlessly because he takes a tunnel from his home to his office and perhaps even other places. So, one way in which you open public places from security risks is to separate the people who need high security and put them away inside composites,” he said.
In a two hour presentation, Mr. Patel showed that the PM’s house would be shifted near the South Block and Vice-President’s house behind the North Block. The existing offices of defense personnel will be removed and be replaced with the Special Protection Group (SPG) office. The design reveals, these two blocks, which house several ministries, will be converted into a national museum.
The presentation further revealed that South Block will be transformed into a museum of “India up to 1857”. “The plan is simple, we will make North and South block a grand national museum of our country,” said Patel.
He also notified that there will be made necessary changes if the design requires further improvement.
The Underground shuttle
Patel, who calls it a master plan said that the Central Vista or Rajpath will have ten new buildings for accommodating between 50,000 to 60,000 government representatives. He said that the height of these buildings will be 36 meters tall, from the ground plus eight floors, which is six meters lower than the India Gate.
Currently, government employees are spread everywhere in the national capital. The new plan will save Rs 1000 crore per year which is spent on rent. He said that to make their commuting easy, underground shuttle services will be given.
“The core aim is to build an underground shuttle that reaches and connects all buildings. The representatives report at the basement level and rise into the building- like Dubai and Singapore airports- from terminal to terminal. The central administration will be a Transit Oriented Development (TOD),” he said.
The full house capacity of the parliament will be 1548 seats. There will be over 1000 officer chambers for the members of parliament. The new parliament building will also have a spire in golden color. The project is likely to be completed by 2024.
