Central Vista under essential category, work to go on: High Court

Hours after the Delhi High Court allowed the construction work of the Central Vista project to continue, saying it was a “vital and essential” national project, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said a false narrative was being created over the redevelopment plan.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh dismissed a plea seeking to halt the project during the coronavirus pandemic, saying the petition was “motivated” and “not a genuine PIL”. It imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioners.

Lashing out at those opposing the project, the minister of housing and urban affairs presented the government’s stand on wide-ranging issues that have been discussed across platforms — from the estimated cost of the project to the clearances it has secured. While the cost of the entire project, to be completed in three phases, has been estimated by various quarters at Rs 20,000 crore, Puri said no such assessment has yet been done by the government.

“We have not yet ascertained the total cost of the project. The figures that are making the rounds are surely incorrect. So far, only two projects have been tendered, which will cost a little over Rs 1,300 crore,” he said.

So far, tenders for the construction of a new Parliament building and the Central Vista Avenue have been flouted and projects have been awarded. While the Parliament building will cost Rs 862 crore, the cost of renovating the central vista avenue — a three-km stretch between Raisina Hills and India Gate — is pegged at Rs 477 crore. “It was being said that it’s a vanity project for which the government is spending Rs 20,000 crore during a pandemic. Further, some alleged that a Rs 13,000 crore ‘Modi-Mahal’ is being constructed. Not only are these figures arbitrary but also misleading as the prime minister’s residence is not only for the current PM but will be used by any future prime minister of the country,” he said.

According to him, the plan of the PM’s residence is not yet ready. “So how come the Opposition is saying that construction of the PM’s residence will begin from August?”

Puri said the project would be the governance architecture of India for the next 250-300 years. As an overhaul in delimitation is due in 2026, when the number of representatives at Parliament will be reassessed, the requirement for a larger building with more seating capacity for MPs will be required.

Apart from Opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Jairam Ramesh from the Indian National Congress, nearly 60 retired IAS and IPS officers had written an open letter to the PM and Puri opposing the project. Today, Puri lashed out at them, alleging that their move was “motivated with ill-intensions”.

The group of retired bureaucrats had urged the government to stop the project as “construction and redesign on the scale planned in the redevelopment project will significantly affect the heritage nature of this precinct, and destroy it irrevocably.

According to Puri, the government has not yet taken any call on whether to demolish any heritage buildings in the area.

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