NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JULY 22
The government informed Parliament on Thursday that the new Parliament building is scheduled to be completed by October 2022 — the 75th year of Indian Independence — and the development of Central Vista Avenue will be complete by November 2021.
The government has said that environment clearance (EC) for other projects as part of the development of the Central Vista Master Plan — that includes Common Central Secretariat Buildings and Central Conference Centre, Prime Minister’s Residence, Special Protection Group (SPG) Building and the Vice President’s Enclave — was obtained from the Ministry of Environment on May 31 this year. The clearance for the new Parliament was granted by the ministry on June 17, 2020.
“None of the listed heritage buildings will be demolished under the Central Vista Development Master Plan. All the materials in National Archives and National Museum would be available to scholars and researchers during the construction,” the government has further told Parliament.
The government said that as a part of the process of obtaining EC, Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) studies were carried out for all the projects of the Central Vista Master Plan, which are under various stages.
“This study also included the environment impact of the buildings proposed in Executive enclave (comprising Prime Minister’s Office, Cabinet Secretariat & National Security Council Secretariats) and ongoing construction of New Parliament Building (for which EC has been already obtained on 17 June, 2020) in addition to the projects for which EC was applied for. Based on this study a comprehensive EIA report was submitted for the consideration of Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC). EAC recommended EC after scrutiny of the EIA report. After due process Environmental Clearance was granted vide Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change letter dated 31st May, 2021,” the government said.
