Work on new Parliament building as per schedule: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla

New DelhI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said on Saturday that the work on the new Parliament House is going on as per schedule and the winter session of Parliament is likely to be held in the new building this year. Interacting with media persons, Birla said that the new building would be a green building equipped with necessary facilities for environmental and energy conservation.

“The Lok Sabha Chamber in the new Parliament House will have a seating capacity of 888 members, and during a joint session of both the houses, 1272 members can be seated. There will be a seating arrangement for 384 members in the Rajya Sabha Chamber.

The new building for the MPs is being made techno-friendly. Members’ desks will be equipped with multimedia screens through which they will be able to vote in the House, record attendance and request opportunity to speak in the House. They will be able to access the MP Portal through the touch screen available in it. Apart from this, they will also be able to access documents uploaded earlier in their personal folders,” Birla said while detailing the infrastructure of the new Parliament House.

The Speaker said that the Parliament Library would soon be available on mobile devices. Parliament Library is being digitized and for the first time the people of the country are being allowed to access the resources of Parliament Library online. In addition, the Parliament Library will have the facility of physical entry of the general public. The library holds millions of books on various subjects including politics, art, science, space and literature. Apart from this, thousands of books, biographies and biographies are also available on famous historical figures and great leaders of modern India. Birla said the process is on to launch a portal in July this year to ensure that people can read digital books online.