All under one roof: Indian govt is building a common secretariat on Lodhi Road at a whopping cost of Rs 20k crore

Lodhi Road, Central Delhi’s prestigious locality, has been finalised by the Indian government for building a Common Secretariat which would bring together various central ministries and departments. As of now, these ministries and departments are spread across different buildings in Delhi.

The secretariat will be built under a Rs 20,000-crore plan.

Central Public Works Department (CPWD) had given a proposal to the Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gauba, where in it said that residential complexes in Lodhi Road will be demolished and the 4000 families staying there will be relocated so that the secretariat can be built in five years.

The proposal is yet to be placed before PM Modi who will give the final approval.

However, the secretariat would not house the ministries and departments functioning out of the North Block and South Block on Raisina Hill. These include the PMO and the key ministries of home, finance, defence and external affairs.

"CPWD had first proposed to shift all ministries out of the iconic North and South Blocks," a senior official told ET requesting anonymity. "However, serious security concerns were raised. So we scaled down the proposal to include only the government offices spread over different Bhawans."

Now the proposal only includes the ministries and departments scattered in different offices in several buildings, like Krishi Bhawan, Shastri Bhawan, Paryavaran Bhawan, Sardar Patel Bhawan, Nirman Bhawan, LIC building in Connaught Place and RK Puram.

The government is yet to decide how it will use the buildings which will be vacated after these ministries and departments switch to the Common Secretariat. Turning them into museums and leasing them as office spaces are two of the options under consideration.

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