Soon, EDMC may claim stake at civic centre

The building, which houses South and North Delhi Municipal Corporation headquarters, is located in the Municipal boundary of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, which is also facing acute fund shortage these days. Sources have claimed that the EDMC is planning to claim equal stake in the building like the other two Corporations and is exploring possibilities to shift its headquarter to the new address in the Central Delhi.

According to a senior official: “After proper deliberation within the EDMC, a proposal for the claim in the civic centre will be placed before the competent authority. In the initial discussion, it was agreed that the civic centre was constructed by the erstwhile MCD from its own resources and after trifurcation like the liabilities, the EDMC must gets share in the building.”

He said that the two Corporations— North and South MCDs — are functioning from the building and still lots of space is lying vacant which can easily accommodate EDMC. “When North MCD could take ownership of the building and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has given space to function from there till they build their own headquarters, then there is no harm if a third one starts functioning from the same building,” he added.

The civic centre is a complex of five multi-storeyed buildings spread over an area of 11.5 acre, occupying around 1.16 lakh square meter of built up floor area excluding basement parking and service block. Rectangular in shape, the site is close to the New Delhi railway and Metro stations. In all, 42 elevators including high-speed elevators and eight escalators have been built in the complex to facilitate smooth movement. About 40 per cent of the area has been given to the Income Tax department on rent of Rs 1,800 crore for 90 years.