SOURCE: DHNS
Nearly 9,000 defense personnel and their settlements presently located at Central Vista, New Delhi are all set to give way to the residences of Prime Minister and Vice-President of India as planned in the redevelopment of the Central Vista, the seat of Parliament. This was revealed in a Facebook live presentation by Ahmedabad-based architect and master planner of the project Bimal Patel on Saturday.
“There are 9,000 defense personnel working here (Central Vista)…there is no reason for them to be located here. These employees of the defense departments can be working in other places also. So, the first thing that is being done for these 9,000 who do not need to be located in the center is to move them out of here into new offices that are being custom built,” Patel said in an hour-long power-point presentation titled “Transformation of Central Vista. New Delhi.”
The event was organised by Maharashtra Association of Schools of Architect (MASA). Incidentally, a similar event of the Council of Architect, a government body, was cancelled on May 22 reportedly after opposition from several members.
Patel said in his presentation, “The actual population of the Central Vista area is not going to change much. Presently, the place has a load of nearly 50,000 people that includes 9000 defense personnel and under the new plan the population is not going to be more than 51,000 people. So, the load on the infrastructure is not going to significantly increase at all.”
It is to be noted that concerns are being raised that the new plan will increase the population density in the area which is also called as “lung” of Delhi due to its greenery.
Patel said that at present there are 41,000 central government employees of 22 ministries who work in and around the Central Vista and the remaining 10,000 are scattered elsewhere. He said that the total 51,000 employees of 51 ministries of the government will be accommodated in one place for which new buildings are being built and at the same time, 9000 defense personnel will be moved outside which will balance the population density.
The defense settlements will be replaced by residence of the Prime Minister and Vice-President which are being constructed opposite one another in the north and south block corners.The office of Special Protection Group will also be built close to the PM residence. Patel had said in another presentation earlier this year that there will be a dedicated tunnel for the movement of the Prime Minister from his office to residence to end the traffic blockades.
The Central Vista redevelopment is an ambitious project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP government which is being criticised as “wasteful” by opposition parties. Patel defended the move by saying that redevelopment is “needed” for many things including “very poor use of land, the present building and landscape are nothing like the other inspiring ‘capitol’ of the world like United State, France and Australia.”
https://defencenewsofindia.com/9000-defense-personnel-will-be-moved-out-from-central-vista-master-architect/
