Delhi MP's to live in earthquake resistant duplex flats
NEW DELHI: Soon parliamentarians will have new houses to live in the Lutyens Delhi as the ministry of urban development has started redeveloping the North and South Avenues. The old houses will be replaced by new swanky duplex flats having earthquake-resistant construction and Green building features.
A senior official of the MoUD said that the new building complex will be redeveloped after demolishing the old structures and a total of 144 and 120 new duplex type flats will be constructed in the North and South Avenues respectively.
Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan laid the foundation stone of the construction on April 11 and Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu was also present on this occasion. The official said that the plan for redevelopment was rolled out in presence of the minister. “The new duplex flats will have more space than the older ones. All the clearances have been received to redevelop the area and construction will be done in a phased manner. In the first phase, 36 new flats will be constructed in North Avenue and the estimated cost for this phase is Rs 92.25 crore. The construction will be completed in about 30 months,” added the official.
Together, North and South Avenue have over 400 flats for MPs and the construction is more than 60 years old. “Redevelopment was needed as the construction was very old and the old flats have not been constructed in a regular manner. Many flats have only one or two rooms. Many do not have enough space for offices and servant quarters and this had led to problems in accommodating MPs,” added the official.
The official said that the old construction has already outlived their life of 60 years and the maintenance cost was very high. “For last few years we have been getting regular complaints of cracks in the wall, leakage, blocked pipeline and plaster coming out. Redevelopment was necessary and CPWD had recommended this in 2010,” he added.
The new building complex will comprise a four -bedroom duplex flat (one-bed room at the ground floor and three at the upper floor), which will be serviced by a dedicated basement parking. The ground floor will also have kitchen, dining lobby, living room, office, four toilets and staff quarter. The upper floor will have three bedrooms with attached toilets, family lounge and a puja room.
The north and south avenues come under Lutyens Bungalow Zone of Delhi which is in the close neighbourhood of Parliament building and the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Altogether, the zone covers about 3,000 acres, or 1.5 percent, of the landmass of Delhi and considered one of the most prime locations in the country having lowest density of people.
Moreover, the construction will also have Green building features like solar street lights, energy efficient air-conditioning, energy saving Led lights, occupancy sensor in flats, rainwater harvesting and water conservation system.