Delhi belongs to all of us: Chidambaram

NEW DELHI - Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said that Delhi belongs to all Indians and the country takes pride in having a great national capital.

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre here, Chidambaram said: ” Delhi belongs to all of us. We have a great country. We must be proud to have a great national capital.”

“And, a great national capital city, should have a very good civic administration,” he added.

Chidambaram congratulated all elected representatives and staff of MCD for working together to realize their dream of having a civic centre.

“We are truly proud that all members and other staff have shown the result of working together, he said.

“They have shown that if we set our mind we can do anything,” Chidambaram added.

He laid stress on the need to improve and maintain quality in every field of work, especially in infrastructure development.

“Hands of quality should have a touch on every work we do. When I mean quality, it’s world class quality,” Chidambaram said.

“Our schools, hospitals, civil lanes, water supply, roads, parks, everything should be of world class quality, ” he added.

Chidambaram further said that when an administration builds world-class infrastructure, people would proudly accept ownership of them.

“When we build world-class quality infrastructure people will be proud of it. Look at our metro, people own it, because its world class.If the stadiums which are being built for the upcoming Commonwealth Games are of world class, then people will proudly accept that,” Chidambaram said.

“World class infrastructure will be monuments of the modern age and will be their forever, he added.

The Civic Centre is a complex of multistoried buildings, which comprises of four six-storey building blocks and one 28-storey tower block.

The complex is functionally segregated into distinct zone of institutional and commercial office activity with about 50 percent of the space designated for institutional activity and 50 percent of the space designated for commercial activity.

The institutional activity proposed for the complex includes offices of the MCD.

The legislative and executive wing of the top hierarchy of MCD would occupy two of the six storeys and half of the twenty-eight storey tower block.

Commercial office and cultural activities have been proposed on the remaining area.

One six-storey block would host different cultural activities and the reminder floor space; half of the twenty eight-storey blocks and one six-storey block would be available as commercial.

The cultural block would incorporate a 1000 seater auditorium, a 1,20,000 volume library, 2000 sq. m of art gallery, a museums and a 1500 person capacity banquet hall.

Areas for restaurants, banks, communication center, travel agencies and other support services would also be provided within the complex.

The average area of the typical floor in multistoried block is approximately 2800 sq. m and that of a six-storey block is approximately 1000 sq. m.

The configuration of the floor space permits use of one consolidated space or partition into smaller modules. By Shreeraj Gudi (ANI)