PM inaugurates Parliament Annexe extension

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated the Parliament House Annexe Extension Building which has committee rooms, an auditorium, a banquet hall and chambers for chairpersons of Standing Committees.

Among those present on the occasion were Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar.

The building has two blocks spread over 39,495 sq meters.

Block A, which has three storeys, is a ceremonial block comprising four committee rooms, an auditorium, a banquet hall, call-on rooms and a few office rooms.

The six-storey Block B has 41 chambers for chairpersons of Standing Committees and branches of the committees.

The building is "green" with a terrace garden, energy efficient lighting and solar water heating system.

It has provision for solar power generation and provides easy access to the differently-abled.

A Lok Sabha Secretariat release said the Parliament House Annexe Building was built in 1975 to accommodate offices of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariat. But the number of parliamentary Standing Committees and other offices belonging to them have increased.

The foundation stone of the Extension building was laid in May 2009 by Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari and then Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. The construction work started in May 2011 and was completed in December 2016.

--IANS

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