New Parliament building | Explained: why India built a new seat of power

The present Parliament House is a 100-year-old colonial-era building that was designed as the ‘Council House’ and completed in 1927. When India became independent, it was converted to serve as Parliament House. It was never designed to accommodate a bicameral legislature for a full-fledged democracy, according to the official Central Vista website.

Over the years, along with lack of seating and working space, infrastructure of the Parliament has become distressed and obsolete.

The Lok Sabha can currently seat a maximum of 552 people and the Rajya Sabha 280. The Central Hall can seat only 440 leading to addition of at least 200 temporary seats when joint sessions are held.

The freeze on the Lok Sabha strength is only till 2026 after which the number of MPs in the country can be increased to be proportionate to the growing population of India. The new Parliament has space for 888 members in the Lok Sabha and 348 in the Rajya Sabha. For joint session, the Lower House can seat 1,272 people.

According to the govt website, in order to remain functional, many additions and alterations have been made to the current Parliament over the years that have severely damaged the building’s structure.

The building’s electrical, mechanical, air-conditioning, audio-visual, public address system and security infrastructure is absolutely out of date and needs modernising. Fire safety is also a major concern as the building is not designed according to modern fire norms.

There are structural safety concerns of the building. The current Parliament building was built when Delhi was in Seismic Zone-II, currently it is in Seismic Zone-IV.