@Evening: 📎 Your Three-Minute Guide To India's New Parliament Complex

🏛️ New, bigger, better

We are less than two days away from the inauguration of the new Parliament Complex. Here's helping you get to know it better.

• PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone in December 2020.

• The construction was executed by Tata Projects Limited.

• Built at an estimated cost of Rs 970 crore, the four-storey building covers a vast 64,500 sq m area.

• The location chosen for the new Parliament is a triangular plot adjacent to the existing Parliament House.

• Within the triangular structure, the Lok Sabha finds a place in the northwest corner, while the Rajya Sabha sits in the southwest corner.

• The National Emblem will crown the new Parliament building, which was unveiled by the PM in July 2022. The 6.5-metre-high bronze emblem weighs 9,500 kg.

The new Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha houses. Here's what's in store:

• The Lok Sabha Hall in the new Parliament will have a seating capacity of 888, as against 543 in the old Parliament House.

• The Rajya Sabha Hall has a seating capacity of 300, as compared with 250 in the previous hall.

• The Parliament will have an additional capacity — of up to 1,140 seats — to host joint sessions of both houses since there is no Central Hall.

• The new design adheres to a traditional colour scheme, with green and red for the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, respectively.

• The Lok Sabha theme represents the national bird, the peacock, while the Rajya Sabha theme is in line with the lotus.

Features to watch for. The building has been planned to incorporate essential facilities, including committee rooms, key offices of the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, and the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariats.

• Surrounding the chambers and the lounge area, the complex will feature offices positioned along the outer edges of the building.

• These spaces will serve not only as offices for ministers, the PM, and the Speakers of the Houses, but also include dedicated offices for MPs, as is the norm globally.

• The central space of the building, with arms leading up to the entrances — is called the Constitution Hall.

• There will be a large central lounge — an open courtyard over an area of 2,000 sq m.

• The new complex has three doors — Gyan Dwar, Shakti Dwar, and Karma Dwar — with separate entrances for MPs, VIPs, and visitors.

• The furniture in the debating halls will be equipped with advanced features such as smart displays and biometrics to facilitate seamless voting through an intuitive and graphical interface.

• Additionally, the complex will house digital language interpretation and recording infrastructure, enabling the generation of real-time metadata.

At the heart of the Central Vista. The launch of the new Parliament marks a significant progress in the development underway of the Central Vista — the administrative core of the country in the capital city.

• A joint Central Secretariat, a new PM’s residence, a new PM’s office, a new VP’s enclave, as well as a revamped Kartavya Path are also part of the redevelopment project.

• The ambitious project, headed by Central Public Works Department, will be built at a cost of Rs 13,450 crore between 2020 and 2026.