New Delhi: With the inauguration of new Parliament on Sunday, the country can now boast of an advanced, highly efficient and sprawling building where the lawmakers would now sit & legislate. The new Parliament complex has been raised in record 2.5 years time and also at a reasonable cost of around Rs 1,000 crore. Opposition created a lot of hue & cry, first over the Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista Plan and then over Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the historical complex on May 28, 2023. It has been unrelenting & unsparing in its attack on the Centre over new Parliament building. Defending the need of new Parliament complex, govt cited dilapidated condition of the old building and also reasoned about the need for high-tech infrastructure for agile debate & efficient policy making. Brief comparison with US embassy in Vietnam ‘exposes’ naysayers The master plan for Central Vista was conceived before pandemic in September 2019 and got completed in record 2.5 years time. The tender was bagged by Tata Group at an estimated cost of about Rs 862 crore. However, the government in a reply in Lok Sabha said that the estimated cost was Rs 971 crore. This is much lower than the cost of US embassy being built in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi. A report by leading portal claims that the US did a ground-breaking ceremony in Vietnam’s capital and the estimated cost for this structure stands at a whopping $1.2 billion.’ The project has been designed by Page, an architect-based in Washington DC. The grandeur & magnificence of new Parliament building has also elicited interest from many users. While a couple of Twitter users said that this marks the ‘ascent of an ancient civilization like India’ while some others claim that the cost incurred in new Parliament building was as low as 1/10 of the cost of upcoming US Embassy in Vietnam. That's about 1/10th of what the US is paying to build its new embassy in Vietnam — Tomo X Techno (@tomoXtechno) May 28, 2023 According to official details, the Central Vista will see construction of official residence of Vice-President & Prime Minister of India along with 10 buildings of Central Secretariat & also facilities for security officials. The whole project is likely to be completed by 2026.
