Kartavya Bhavan to be ready by September 2026; Central Vista by April 2028

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like The Centre on Monday said the 10th Common Central Secretariat (CCS) building, Kartavya Bhavan, under the Central Vista redevelopment project will be ready by September, with the entire project slated for completion by April 2028. For representational purposes only. (HT)Providing a timeline in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for housing and urban Affairs Tokhan Sahu said the project will conclude with the construction of the 4th and 5th CCS buildings by April 2028, in response to a question by Leader of Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. He said other key milestones include completion of the 6th and 7th CCS buildings by March 2027, followed by the retrofitting of the North Block by August 2027. The 8th and 9th CCS buildings are scheduled for completion by December 2027, while conservation and retrofitting of the South Block will be completed by March 2028. Both the North and South Blocks will be repurposed as the Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum. Responding to concerns over pollution during construction, Sahu said multiple control measures are in place, including dust suppression nets, water sprinkling, covered transportation of materials and disposal of debris at authorised construction and demolition waste plants. “A 12-metre dust barricade has been installed at all sites, while roads are regularly cleaned,” he said, adding that officials from the Commission for Air Quality Management and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee are conducting inspections. Anti-smog guns and green covers are also being used at project sites. In August 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first of the 10 CCS buildings, paving the way for vacating the North and South Blocks, which had served as the country’s administrative hub for nearly a century. Since February 13 this year, the Prime Minister’s Office has been functioning from the Seva Teerth complex, also known as the Executive Enclave on Dara Shikoh Road, instead of the South Block, as part of the redevelopment plan. Under the Central Vista project, the government has already completed the new Parliament building, which hosted its first session in September 2023; the redevelopment of Rajpath, renamed Kartavya Path in September 2022; and the Vice-President’s Enclave in April 2024. To make way for the new buildings, older structures such as Shastri Bhavan, Udyog Bhavan, Krishi Bhavan and Vigyan Bhavan will be demolished, while key heritage structures, including the old Parliament building, will be preserved and repurposed. While the government has not disclosed the total cost of the project, a reply in the Lok Sabha in February stated that the sanctioned amount had been revised to ₹13,169.61 crore from ₹12,762.49 crore.