New Delhi: Just a few hours after the Delhi High Court rejected a challenge to the Central Vista project, Union Minister Hardeep Puri defended the ongoing 'big ticket' project by saying that a false narrative was being propagated over the plan and that "no heritage building would be touched".
However, he also rubbished the allegations of Opposition parties that continuing Central Vista project during the pandemic would have its bearing on the vaccine procurement.
On the controversy over starting of Prime Minister's new residence project, the Union Minister said that all such allegations of the Opposition are baseless as no design had yet been cleared for a new Prime Minister's residence and only two projects –the Parliament building and the widening of the Central vista stretch –were on track.
Puri further conceded that the pandemic had impacted the project's timeline and plans for the new PM's residence and Vice President's house had been delayed. "As we didn't visualise the pandemic, so the whole process of our schedule will now get delayed to 2024 -2025," he told reporters.
"Currently, two new projects are underway –the New Parliament Building and Central Vista Avenue. A decision on these projects was taken before the pandemic. The total cost of the project is around Rs 1300 crore," the Union Minister said, adding that the total cost of the whole project would fall around between Rs 14,000-Rs 15,000 crore and it has not yet been estimated that the cost of the project would be around Rs 20,000 crore, which is being claimed by Congress party leaders.
While taking on Congress, the Union Minister said, "The decision to build a new Parliament House was not taken by the current government. It was decided in 2012 when Congress was in power. We have just implemented it."
"The Parliament building is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 862 crore and Central Vista Avenue at Rs 477 crore. "The total cost of the project construction currently underway is around Rs 1,300-odd crore... We want to finish the new Parliament building by 2022 to mark 75 years of independence," Puri said.
He also asserted that this was "not a vanity project but a necessary project" as the current building was in a seismic zone. On the proposed new building house for the PM, he clarified that it's an institutional building, which will be the official residence of the PM. The minister also claimed that none of the historic iconic cultural buildings will be touched and they will remain exactly as they are.