With teak wood sourced from Maharahtra’s Nagpur, carpets from Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur, bamboo flooring from Tripura and stone carvings from Rajasthan, the new Parliament building reflects the vibrant colours and diversity of India. The task of construction of the new Parliament Building was a mammoth endeavour which witnessed several key construction activities being done off site too.
The construction of the new Parliament building witnessed the use of various materials sourced from across the country, thus imbibing the spirit of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’.
Here’s a glimpse of what comes from where:
- The red and white sandstone was procured from Sarmathura in Rajasthan. The sandstone for the Red Fort and Humayun’s Tomb in the national capital was also known to have been sourced from Sarmathura.
- The teakwood used in the building has been sourced from Nagpur in Maharashtra.
- The Kesharia green stone has been procured from Udaipur, the red granite from Lakha near Ajmer and the white marble has been sourced from Ambaji in Rajasthan.
- The furniture was crafted in Mumbai.
- The steel structure for the false ceilings in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha chambers has been sourced from the union territory of Daman and Diu, while the furniture in the new building was crafted in Mumbai.
- The stone ‘jaali’ (lattice) works dotting the building were sourced from Rajnagar in Rajasthan and Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
- The materials for the Ashoka Emblem were sourced from Aurangabad in Maharashtra and Jaipur in Rajasthan. The Ashok Chakra donning the massive walls of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha chambers and the exteriors of the parliament building were procured from Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
- The stone carving work was done by sculptors from Abu Road and Udaipur, and stone aggregates were sourced from Kotputali, Rajasthan.
- The new parliament building used manufactured sand or M-sand from Charkhi Dadri in Haryana for creating a concrete mix for the construction activities.
- The fly ash bricks used in the construction were sourced from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, while brass works and pre-cast trenches were from Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the newly constructed Parliament building on Sunday. He will also install the historical and sacred ‘Sengol’ in the building, which is a symbol of the transfer of power from the British to India.
The new Parliament building can comfortably seat 888 members in the Lok Sabha chamber and 300 in the Rajya Sabha chamber. As many as 25 parties are expected to attend the inauguration of the new Parliament building even as 20 opposition parties have decided to boycott the event.
