'Biggest objective of Central Vista is recasting of iconography of power in India'

The master architect behind the contentious Central Vista project, which aims to redevelop the parliament and its precinct, Bimal Patel on Friday said that the biggest objective of the project is "recasting of the iconography of power" in the country.

Patel said the project will change the use of the space on Raisina hill, commonly known as the seat of government of India, as "cultural facility for people of India."

"The British built it atop a hill...it was the symbol of the Raj." He said that the Britishers would sit on top of the hill and look down on the landscape to govern India. "Then, we appropriated it and the government of India made this their symbol. They were going to sit on the hill and govern India, maybe it was Indians but was still on top of the hill and govern India," the Ahmedabad-based architect said during a talk on "Revisiting Central Vista".

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"What's now happening is that the government is going into the buildings there and building on the hill is becoming a cultural facility of the people of India. So, what used to be the Raj and became the Indian government will become the symbol of culture of people of India. So, it's a recasting of the iconography of power in this space. By just changing the use we are changing the meaning of the place, and I think that's perhaps it's biggest objective of the project," Patel said during the talk held at CEPT university in front of a limited audience. The event was also broadcast live on YouTube by the university which he heads as its President.

Claiming that no grade-1 heritage building was being harmed, Patel said that "protecting heritage, expanding public space and changing the iconography of power" was among the objectives of this ambitious project being directly supervised by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that the winter session of 2022 is most likely to be held in the new parliament.

He said that "one of the objectives is to show that building in India doesn't take forever to complete. And, also to show that we can do this at scale and speed."

He listed "modernising and expanding parliament's facilities, improving productivity and efficiency of the administration, strengthening cultural and recreational facilities, providing modern and secure infrastructure for executive offices, providing residential facilities for the Vice President and Prime Minister" as some of the core objectives of the project. The event was jointly held by CEPT university, CEPT Research and Development Foundation and Centre for Research on Architecture and Urbanism.

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