Parliament House, Delhi

The Parliament House is built in tune with the imperial style houses. The architecture of Parliament House consists of ministerial offices, numerous committee rooms, and an excellent library as well as an open verandah with 144 columns. The circular central hall with a dome in addition to three semi-circular buildings is used to hold the meetings for Rajya Shabha and Lok Shabha meetings. Also known as Sansad, the Parliament House is the maximum power holding legislative body constituting of the President of India and the two houses namely- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Moreover, the President of India has the supreme rights of summoning or discontinuing a session or the house itself.

The Indian Government is Bicameral which means that it consists of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha which in turn consists of members of parliament which are either elected or nominated by the president. At present, the Parliament contains 790 MPs serving the world largest democratic electorate in the world.

Architecture
Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker who were the principle personalities solely involved in the planning and reformation of the New Delhi also designed enormously spectacular building which took a prolonged time of 6 years to build. 18 January 1927 marks its date of inauguration which was done by then Governor-General of India, Lord Irwin. The building holds a handsome sum of Rs. 8.3 million to it lavish construction. Occupying a large area of six acres the parliament is 570 feet (170 meters) in diameter and has twelve gates to it out of which the Gate No. 1 opens to the Sansad Marg.

General layout of the building
The most attractive point of the parliament is the central hall which has chambers of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and the Library Hall garden courts as its components. Enveloping these Chambers is the four storied circular structure which houses the adjustments for the Ministers, Chairmen, Parliamentary committees, Party offices, important offices of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariats and also the offices of the ministry of Parliamentary affairs. Being a place of historical significance the Central Hall is circular in shape having a dome whose diameter measures to 98 feet (29.87 meters).

One of the greatest events that happened in the hall is the framing of the Indian Constitution. The significance doesn’t end here as the hall was earlier indigenously used in the library of Central Legislative Assembly and the Council of States. The year 1946 marked its conversion and renovation into Constituent Assembly Hall. At present, the Central Hall is performing the function of holding joint sittings conferring to both the houses of parliament and is also used by the President to make a formal speech marking the beginning of the of first session after each general election.