NEW DELHI: After the passage of 65 years since its inception, the NCERT headquarters on Aurobindo Marg in New Delhi is set to get a revamped, modern library and documentation centre. Construction of the Rs 205-crore structure, which will comprise eight floors, will begin in December this year.
“All the proposals in this connection are through. The Ministry of Education has given its approval for the library to be built at a cost of rS 205 crore. We will be floating tenders to start the construction of the building shortly. The work needs to begin by December 2026,” a senior official said, expressing optimism that the library would be ready by December 2028.
The present library, which runs on two floors, is located in the heart of the campus in the G B Pant Block. The new library will come up in the north of the campus, the official said. “After it is launched, the older one will be used for other official purposes,” he added.
The basement of the new building will be fully earmarked for parking. Digitalisation will be given thrust. “We will have an entire floor dedicated to our e-library. NCERT plans to go in for digitisation of the content on a massive scale for its Digital Infrastructure Repository. We are awaiting a high-quality scanner which will help us in scanning all details minutely,” the official said.
An e-library is already functional with at least 500 guests logging onto it daily.
“Our resources are used by scholars and students preparing for competitive exams on a daily basis. Students in South Delhi use our campus as a study and research centre,” he said.
Rare and old manuscripts and journals available in the library here. “Some of them are one of a kind in the world and are real treasures,” another official said.
An auditorium with a seating capacity of 902 that can host national and international conferences is among the new infrastructure initiatives in the pipeline. India’s civilisational heritage is promoted through the installation of a statue of Maharshi Ved Vyasa, the author of the Mahabharata, said an official release.
While the UGC declared NCERT as a deemed to be university on March 30 this year, this has not yet been notified. “We will be able to take steps towards finalisation of our courses only after that,” said another official.
