After missing several deadlines and being delayed by well over a year, the ambitious new civic centre of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is finally expected to be ready by April 1.
The announcement was made by MCD Standing Committee chairman Ram Kishan Singhal on Friday during a field visit to the civic centre.
“The civic centre is almost ready and we will be shifting all our MCD offices there on April 1. We are still awaiting the No Objection Certificate from the Fire Department. Besides being the tallest building in the city, the USP of the building is that it has a separate sewerage waste treatment and water treatment plants in its premises for cleaning and recycling of water.”
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Giving details of other salient features of the building, MCD Leader of House Subhash Arya said: “Designed to be earthquake-resistant, the building would be able to withstand an earthquake measuring up to 8.5 on the Richter scale. In addition, it would have 43 elevators and eight escalators. We have decided to name the building after Syama Prasad Mookerjee and its five sections after the name of five Indian rivers.”
Several extensions
Leader of Opposition J. K. Sharma said: “Though this project’s deadline has been extended several times and the work pace was slow to begin with, it has gathered steam now and is fast progressing towards completion. With the completion of the civic centre building, the much tarnished reputation of the civic body can finally be salvaged.”
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Proposed as the new headquarters of the MCD, the civic centre is being constructed at the Minto Road-Jawaharlal Nehru Marg intersection at a cost of Rs.550 crore. It will be spread over 12 acres with an approximate height of 112 metres and will have four six-storey blocks, one 28-storey tower block in addition to services block, water treatment plant and sewage treatment plant and two helipads on the terrace of the tower block.
According to the civic body, the building is expected to witness over 16,000 footfalls per day.
MCD spokesperson Deep Mathur said: “Town Hall, the present headquarters of the MCD, has already been declared a heritage building and is located in the congested Chandni Chowk area making it difficult for the public to reach there. So to solve these problems, the Town Hall complex will be vacated and the occupants shifted to the new civic centre.”
On completion, the new building complex will house the civic body’s deliberative wing and the offices of different departments under one roof.