New Parliament: A larger House

Parliament’s move came in two stages. Narendra Modi inaugurated the new building on 28 May 2023. On 19 September, the Lok Sabha held its first session there. The ceremony had introduced a national landmark; the later sitting made it the working home of the legislature. [1] [2]

Across from the old circular Parliament House stood a new building with larger chambers and a different arrangement of space. Its delivery was a completed public project under the Modi government, with a practical purpose as well as a prominent place in the government’s account of national renewal. [1] [4]

Making room beside the old Parliament

The old building dated to 1927. In March 2020, when the Union government approved land-use changes for the wider Central Vista redevelopment, the housing ministry described Parliament’s existing facilities and infrastructure as inadequate. It proposed a new building nearby to meet space requirements. That was the government’s stated case for construction, rather than a finding that the old building had ceased to function. [3]

The Lok Sabha Secretariat’s pre-completion brochure set out the scale of the new provision: 888 seats in the Lok Sabha chamber and 384 in the Rajya Sabha, with the Lok Sabha capable of accommodating 1,272 members for a joint sitting. These were design capacities. Building more seats did not itself create more constituencies or change the number of elected representatives. [4]

HCP Design, Planning and Management designed the building, and Tata Projects constructed it. Tata’s own account dates the foundation stone to December 2020 and describes materials drawn from different parts of India. The interiors used the peacock for the Lok Sabha, the lotus for the Rajya Sabha and the banyan for the Central Lounge. Behind the symbolism lay the work of designers, engineers, suppliers and construction crews. [5] [6]

An opening amid disagreement

The project’s visibility also made its cost and ceremony political questions. Ahead of inauguration, The Indian Express reported an estimated cost of ₹971 crore. That figure was a contemporary estimate, not an audited final account, and should not be confused with the cost of the entire Central Vista programme. [6]

Opposition parties boycotted the inauguration, arguing that the decision to have the Prime Minister open the building sidelined President Droupadi Murmu. Modi’s inaugural address presented the new Parliament as a reflection of national aspirations. The completed building was real; agreement over the meaning of its opening was absent. [6] [1]

Use brought more ordinary tests. After heavy rain in July 2024, water leaked into a lobby. In a statement reported by PTI on 1 August, the Lok Sabha Secretariat attributed the leak to displaced adhesive around a glass dome and said corrective work had stopped it. That was the institution’s explanation and repair assurance, rather than an independent assessment of the whole structure. [7]

By then, the new chambers were part of Parliament’s everyday life. Providing space had been the construction task. How that space served debate, scrutiny and representation would be decided through the proceedings held inside it.