After the Lucknow Vidhan Sabha, the seat of Karnataka Legislature, the majestic, imposing building of Vidhana Soudha built in the Indo-Sarsenic and Neo-Dravidian style is considered to be the most beautiful legislature building in the country.
Designed in European and American architectural styles by the state’s first chief minister Kengal Hanumantaiah and completed in 1956, this pure granite structure, dominating the northern boundary of the Cubbon Park, is the largest legislative building in India. Designed on modern lines, the Vidhana Soudha has made use of reinforced steel, concrete glass, plastic, wood (even sandalwood) apart from solid Bangalore granite excavated from nearby areas like Hessarghata and Mallasandra.
It is reported that more than 1500 chisellers, wood carvers and masons worked on the project for four years. The most interesting aspect of the project was that most of the unskilled workers were ‘convicts’, who were freed after its completion.
It was Kengal’s dream of an edifice symbolising the House of Commons (London) and the Capitol (Washington DC). Rectangular in shape, the four wings of the building complex is differently designed, some having a cellar floor, ground floor and three upper floors, while the central part comprising the Banquet Hall and the 112-feet-high Legislative chamber. The front part of the building is inscribed with the prophetic words ‘Government work is God’s work’. Constructed at a cost Rs 1.75 crore, today its maintenance alone costs more than Rs 2 crore. Sprawling in an area of 60 acres, the Vidhana Soudha complex comprises the Vikas Soudha and the Legislator’s Home too.
Apart from this, the Vikas Soudha, which is a replica of the Vidhana Soudha was constructed in 2005 during SM Krishna’s term as the chief minister. It is basically an annexe to the main building and houses some of the ministries and departments that could not be accommodated in the latter.