Thirty-six new four-bedroom duplex flats, each complete with a modular kitchen and an office area, are waiting for newly elected MPs in North Avenue in Lutyens’ Delhi.
The flats, which offer a view of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, will be handed over to the Lok Sabha Secretariat by June-end, a senior government official says.
The official says these low-rise buildings are equipped with solar panels, LED lights, basement parking for two cars each and modern amenities.
“The flats have been constructed at a cost of around ₹80 crore against the sanctioned cost of ₹92 crore,” he says. The Central Public Works Department started the work in October 2017 after demolishing the old flats built several decades ago.
“According to the plan, the old flats located in South and North Avenues which were built a long time ago, will be demolished in a phased manner and new ones will be constructed there,” he says.
Nearly 300 of the MPs-elect are first-timers, and they include ex-cricketer Gautam Gambhir, Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Smriti Irani, Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans and Bengali actors Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan Ruhi.
The government has arranged temporary accommodation for 350 MPs till the time they are allotted full-time official residences. In the past, new MPs used to stay in five-star hotels, but the Lok Sabha Secretariat no longer book them as part of cost-cutting measures.
The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha will begin on June 17, and the first two days will be spent on the swearing-in of the members.
