New Delhi: The Central Vista Redevelopment, one of the showpiece projects of the Narendra Modi-led government, is marred by delays due to multiple changes in the original plan and lack of clarity on which all central ministries will be shifted to the new office space being built, ThePrint has learnt.
The project was conceived in 2019 to revamp Central Vista, India’s central administrative area located near Raisina Hill in New Delhi. The overall budget of the project is around Rs 20,000 crore, which includes the cost of the completed tasks.
In the past four years—since work started—tasks such as building the new Parliament and Vice-President’s house, and revamping Central Vista Avenue have been completed, after missing multiple deadlines.
The new Parliament building, for instance, was to be ready before the winter session in 2022, but it was inaugurated in May last year.
However, work is running behind schedule on several other key components of the project including building the Common Central Secretariat that will house all the central government ministries in one place, the Prime Minister’s residence and chambers of Members of Parliament, among others.
ThePrint has learnt that the Centre is yet to finalise the list of central government ministries that should be moved first to the Common Central Secretariat (CCS), which will house 51 ministries and departments in 10 buildings.
There is also no clarity on when work on the Prime Minister’s new official residence, which is proposed to be constructed adjacent to the Rashtrapati Bhawan and South Block on Dara Shikoh Road, will begin. The South Block is the building housing the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and ministries of defence and external affairs.
A senior government official also said that the plan for the construction of MP chambers has been put on hold.
At present, work on the Executive Enclave (which will house the PMO, Cabinet Secretariat, India House and the National Security Council Secretariat) and another office building (CCS 13) is ongoing.
The central government had set “stringent timelines” to complete the CCS buildings and the new Parliament building, and revamp the Central Vista Avenue (a 3-kilometre-long road that connects the Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate) by March 2024, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in October 2019.
However, barring the new Parliament building, the other constructions have missed the completion deadline.
A senior government official, speaking to the ThePrint on condition of anonymity, said that work to construct the first set of office buildings for central government ministries—on the location from which Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) was relocated—is in its final stages, but the Centre is yet to finalise the ministries that will be shifted to the CCS. Because of this, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD)—nodal agency for the implementation of the redevelopment project—is yet to get permission to invite bids for the construction of other CCS buildings, according to the sources.
They also told ThePrint that offices in the North Block—which houses the ministries of home affairs and finance—will likely be shifted to CCS 1, 2 and 3. This is because the Centre intends to convert both the North Block and South Block into a museum called ‘Yuge Yugeen Bharat National Museum’, the prime minister announced last year.
But a final decision is yet to be made, the sources said.
The delays have led the PMO to hold a meeting last Wednesday with officials of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to review the progress, ThePrint has learnt.
Asked the reason behind the delays, a senior official of the ministry said that at the moment, four of 10 proposed buildings are under construction. “The first three buildings (CCS 1, 2 and 3) are most likely to be ready by the end of January next year. The work got delayed due to heavy rains this time.”
Another ministry official told ThePrint that the estimates and plans for other CCS buildings are ready. “Once the shifting plan is finalised, the tenders for construction of remaining CCS buildings will be floated.”
The official added work on the other CCS buildings will start only after the plan to shift ministries to the new office space is finalised. This is because the new CCS buildings will be constructed after razing the existing government offices, the official said.
“It is a massive project and there are several issues. These came up after work started. We have to carefully plan all aspects of the project, including shifting of ministries, so that there is minimum inconvenience in their functioning,” the official quoted above told ThePrint.
ThePrint has reached the MoHUA for a comment via email and WhatsApp. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Also Read: DDA set to digitise Delhi’s land and property records using data from drone surveys, a first
Multiple changes in the plan
In the initial plan, ministries housed in Transport Bhawan and Shram Shakti Bhawan were proposed to be shifted to a newly constructed office space at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg and Kasturba Gandhi Marg to make way for construction of MP chambers. The ministries in these buildings were among the first proposed to be shifted to the swanky new offices, according to officials.
While the CPWD had invited bids for the construction of MP chambers in January last year, it was put on hold.
Another major change in the plan was regarding the construction of the prime minister’s residence. In 2022, the CPWD invited bids for it twice—on 18 July and 1 October—but withdrew them within days. No decision has been made on it so far, it is learnt.
Due to multiple changes in the plan, the last time the CPWD gave permission for work as part of the project was in November 2022—for the construction of the Executive Enclave.
IGNCA awaits new campus
The IGNCA, spread over 25 acres of land, was razed for the construction of the first set of CCS buildings, and temporarily relocated to Hotel Janpath in July 2021. It was proposed that a new campus will be developed near Jamnagar House, Shahjahan Road.
Three years on, there is no clarity on when the new campus will be ready.
Contacted by ThePrint, Sachidanand Joshi, member secretary, IGNCA, said the plan for the new campus, which was prepared by the consultant (Gujarat-based HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt. Ltd.) was approved by the IGNCA a few years ago. “We hope that we get to shift to our new campus soon.”
He added that when IGNCA was shifted to Hotel Janpath, they were told it was a temporary arrangement, and a new campus would be developed at Jamnagar House within 2-3 years. “We are hopeful that work will start soon now, as the space here is not adequate to display our collection of artefacts and accommodate our entire collection of artworks. We just have two small art galleries, which are not sufficient to showcase our collection. There is also limited library space here.”
Joshi also said that workload has increased manifold in the past three years, which has resulted in an increase in manpower.
Meanwhile, ministry officials told ThePrint that there is no immediate plan for the development of the new IGNCA campus.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
Also Read: State-run NBCC coming up with 13,000 apartments at Amrapali’s vacant plots in Greater Noida
In case of cost overruns due to such lack of clarity, the bureaucrats responsible for the time and cost overrun must be held accountable.
How can there be lack of coordination in such an important project?