India's Parliament moves to a new location from today

The great triangle edifice atop Central Vista, symbolising a New India, replaced the cherished circular Lutyens building as the home of the Indian Parliament today, marking a momentous change. PM Modi will make his way to the new Parliament House while carrying a copy of the Constitution and being escorted by MPs. The event will include special speeches by senior parliamentarians like Manmohan Singh and Shibu Soren. 

 The new, bigger four-storey building can seat 1,272 members – almost 500 more than the previous one. 

Built by British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker two decades before India’s 1947 independence, the old building witnessed the tortuous birth of the republic and thereafter served as a custodian of the world’s most populous democracy. 

Now it is to become a museum, its 788 members moving to a new, triangular-shaped complex built at an estimated cost of $120m. 

It is part of a $2.8bn revamp of British-era offices and residences in central New Delhi that will also include blocks of buildings for government ministries and departments and the prime minister’s new residence. The entire project is spread over 3.2km (1.9 miles).