Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone to commence the construction of the new Parliament building in New Delhi on Thursday.
The Prime Minister performed a ground breaking ceremony for the new Parliament building. It is anticipated that the building construction would be completed by 2022 at an estimated cost of Rs 971 crore.
During the ceremony, various union ministers and eminent people were present, which includes Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi, industrialist Ratan Tata and foreign envoys. Various others, like the governors and chief ministers of different states attended the function virtually through video conferencing.
Addressing the ceremony, Modi said, “Today is a historic day. Today is a milestone in India’s democratic history. Inauguration of the construction of Parliament House of India is one of the most important stages of our democratic tradition. We, the people of India, will together build this new building of our Parliament. And, what will be beautiful from this, what will be pure from this when India celebrates 75 years of its independence, So, the inspiration of that festival should be the new building of our Parliament.”
The existing building of Parliament will be subjected to conservation, a it is an archaeological asset of the country.
