New enclave for PMO, top brass to be readied in 15 days, says official

THe young executive director enclave or the ground government minister’s power (PMO), along with the cabinet secretariat and the national security council secretariat, is expected to be ready within the next 15 days, an official aware of the developments said.According to tenders floated by the Central Public Works Department, the new buildings, being constructed as part of the marquee Central Vista revamp conceived in 2019, are designed with a basement, ground floor, and three upper floors. India House -- a separate building for meetings and a conference centre -- will have only one upper floor, said the official, adding that the ground and first floors are already fit for use.“The Executive Enclave will be ready in the next 15 days. The ground and first floors of the cabinet secretariat are already in the process of getting furnished,” said the official.The Central Vista redevelopment, which was initially to cost ₹20,000 crore, is the centrepiece of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid to erase Delhi’s colonial-era architecture from the seat of power and leave a new architectural legacy. The ones already delivered are the new Parliament building, which hosted its first session in September 2023; the redeveloped Raj Path as Kartavya Path in September 2022, and the Vice-President’s enclave in April 2024.In August this year, the first new building Common Central Secretariat (CCS1) building Kartavya Bhawan (KB) 3 was inaugurated by Modi, which paved the way for shifting of Union government ministries from the iconic North and South blocks. Home and finance ministries have already moved to the KB3 and KB1. This was the first part of the Union government’s broader plan to house all ministries across 10 integrated secretariat buildings, a project aimed at improving coordination, security, and infrastructure for nearly 70,000 central government employees currently scattered across offices, including those in leased and older premises in central Delhi.The KB2 building, too, is expected to be ready for occupation within December, the official said, adding that the adjacent PM’s residence or the executive enclave-2 is projected to take substantially longer to finish, and is expected to be ready only by 2027.The Central Vista redevelopment project has been marred by delays. The first three KB buildings were originally scheduled to be ready by November 2023. To be sure, the new Parliament building and the new V-P enclave were also delayed by more than a year. The next set of Central Vista buildings, namely Kartavya Bhawan 4 till 10, are being constructed with new technologies such as engineered steel and prefabricated elements, to finish the projects within a timeline of 21-24 months. The latest buildings to go under the tendering phase were 8 and 9 in August.