New Delhi: Delhi's tallest building standing 112-metre tall was inaugurated yesterday 49 years after it was conceptualised.
Federal Home Minister P. Chidambaram dedicated the 28-storey Dr Shayma Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre, which will be the new headquarters of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), to the capital.
"A great capital city like Delhi must have a very good civic administration. This civic centre has been long overdue and we are truly proud of this magnificent building that will be a landmark in many, many years to come," Chidambaram said.
MCD, which covers 96 per cent of the metropolis, continues to be under authority of the federal Home Ministry and its transfer to the provincial Delhi government has been delayed due to opposition by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Spread over 12 acres, the new MCD headquarters is located on Jawaharlal Nehru Marg (road) close to the downtown Connaught Place.While the Congress party, in power both at the centre and in the Delhi state, wanted the building to be named after Indira Gandhi, the BJP put its foot down and succeeded in naming it after the founder of Jana Sangh which subsequently became BJP.
The need for a new headquarters for MCD was felt soon after MCD came into being in 1958. The project was conceptualised in 1961 and had to wait for another 22 years before the land was allotted to it in 1983.
It took another 11 years before the foundation stone was laid in 1994 by senior BJP elder Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who later on became prime minister of the country, and had to wait for another 11 years before the project was awarded to Malaysian firm in 2005 through a global tender process.
The total cost of the swanky new building is estimated to be Rs6.5 billion (Dh536 million).
MCD is currently housed in a heritage building right in the heart of the historic Chandni Chowk while its offices and departments are spread all over the city.
Some offices will move to the new building immediately.
