Indian Parliament Building wont be shifted. The Plans for the shift has been shelved in the light of the ticklish task of decongesting the present heritage building.
A day after the Heritage Committee of Parliament met, sources in the panel said that moves for an alternative site and building for Parliament did not find favour with several members.
The sources said a Committee comprising the Parliamentary Affairs Minister and the Home Minister as also a few others is being set up which would ensure that the decogestion of the 85-year-old Parliament House is carried out.
A masterplan will soon be prepared for decongesting Parliament House to restore its character of a heritage building. The Heritage Committee headed by Speaker Meira Kumar decided to go in for consultants to be hired by the CPWD to prepare a masterplan which would ensure that only “core activity” is carried out in the building.
The decision is significant as it came in the first meeting of the Committee after the talk of a possible new Parliament House Complex. The Parliament House is a Grade I heritage structure, designed by Edwin Lutyens and Hervert Baker.
The Heritage Committee is Joint Committee on Maintenance of Heritage Character and Development of Parliament House Complex. Only recently, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had frowned upon the idea of an alternative Parliament House.
He is of the view that the present heritage building should be retained. The Speaker had recently said that she will hold consultations with the Vice President on forming a committee to look into the safety of the Parliament House building and study the need for constructing a new complex.