Currently under the Central Vista Redevelopment project, work to rebuild the new Parliament is underway
Over 700 hutments belonging to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) located around Dalhousie Road in Delhi are being cleared by the ministry and the space will be developed for the Prime Minister's new residence and office as part of the Central Vista Redevelopment project.
The new offices of close to 7,000 ministry officials will now be located at Kasturba Gandhi Marg in Central Delhi and at Africa Avenue near Chanakyapuri. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the two complexes on Thursday.
As per information, over 50 acres, vacated near South Block, will be used to develop the "Executive Enclave" of the Central Vista Project.
The new Executive Enclave, apart from the PM residence, will have offices of the Cabinet Secretariat and other senior officers.
"All these hutments around Dalhousie Road will be vacated over the next two months and the new offices will be permanent," a senior government official said.
According to him, over 7,000 officers and staff belonging to 27 different organizations - attached offices of the Defence Ministry, service headquarters and other subordinate offices - are being shifted.
At Africa Avenue in Chanakyapuri, the new MoD complex is a seven-storey building and will house only defence ministry offices. However, the other office in Central Delhi will be an eight-storey building and will be shared by Parivahan Bhawan and Shram Shakti Bhavan till their new offices are operational at the Central Secretariat Complex.
The new buildings will also provide modern amenities, connectivity and welfare facilities like canteens, banks, etc. The location and spaces of these buildings have been so designed that they do not disturb the pre-existing trees.
As part of the plan, the KG Marg complex will be used to relocate 14 different offices with a built-up area of 4.52 lakh square feet.
Thirteen offices are being relocated to Africa Avenue with a built-up area of 5.08 lakh square feet, officials said, adding, these office complexes have been constructed at a cost of Rs 775 crore provided by the Defence Ministry.
"The work has been carried out by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development as part of their Central Vista project. In addition to the office space for the officers and staff, there is provision for multi-level car parking for over 1,500 cars in these complexes," an official told NDTV.
Currently under the Central Vista Redevelopment project, work to rebuild the new Parliament is underway at Rajpath. While the Parliament building is expected to be ready by 2022 - in time for celebrations of the 75th anniversary of India's Independence, the Central Vista Avenue is expected to be ready by 26th January 2022.