By IANS,
New Delhi : With six floors, the Congress plans to make up in height what it will lose in expanse at its new central office.
The Congress plans to construct a six-storey office on the two-acre plot allotted to it on Kotla Road in central Delhi. Though the party is eligible for a four-acre plot according to its numbers in the two houses of parliament, it already has a plot in Rajendra Prasad Road — which now houses the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation — so it can only get two acres more.
“We were entitled to a four acre plot as the party had more than 200 members of parliament. However, since an allotment had been made earlier for Jawahar Bhavan (office of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation), we were given two acres. We plan to construct a six-storey building at the plot as it is the maximum permissible limit in the area,” Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi told IANS.
The plot is on the corner of Kotla Road and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg. Not wanting to have the name of its headquarter associated with that of Bharatiya Janata Party ideologue Upadhyaya, the Congress has decided to have the entrance at Kotla road.
“The address will be that of Kotla Road,” a senior leader said.
Congress leaders are tight-lipped about the estimated cost of the building, named after former prime minister Indira Gandhi. They only said it will be constructed in about two years.
The building will have a convention centre, underground parking, security gadgets such as close-circuit cameras and a media room. The Congress president’s office will occupy an entire floor.
Party leaders said there were plans in the eighties to use the building on Rajendra Prasad Road for the party’s central office but it was given to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation following the tragic assassination of the former prime minister.
“It was an emotionally charged atmosphere and the building was given to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation,” said a senior leader.
The Congress’s move to construct the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office comes in the wake of a Supreme Court directive that political parties should move out of Lutyen’s zone in New Delhi. Following court orders, the government allocated land to different parties with the size of the plots being determined by the number of MPs.
Before independence in 1947, the Congress had its headquarters at Anand Bhawan, the Nehru family’s bungalow in Allahabad. It shifted to 7 Jantar Mantar Road in Delhi after 1947.
Following a split in the party in 1969, the party’s central office changed several locations before moving to 5 Rajendra Prasad Road in 1971. It moved to its present location 24 Akbar Road in 1978.