Staff Reporter
The construction of new building of the Punjab Assembly has finally been completed after 15 years.
The new Assembly Hall is now the largest in Asia with a seating capacity of 422 members while the guest gallery has a seating capacity of 800. It has been decided that the budget for the next financial year will be presented in the new House.
On Friday, Speaker Punjab Assembly Pervaiz Elahi visited the new building along with Secretary Punjab Assembly, Provincial Law Minister Raja Basharat and Minister for Communications.
The Speaker was told in a briefing that the foundation stone for the new building was laid on June 27, 2006 when he himself was the Chief Minister of Punjab. The project was supposed to be completed in two years, but was constantly postponed due to unavailability of funds during PML-N’s government.
It was told in the briefing that the construction of the building was originally set to cost Rs 2.37 billion but due to continuous delays, the project was completed at a cost of Rs 5.39 billion.
Pervaiz Elahi was informed that the offices of the Speaker, Chief Minister, Deputy Speaker and Leader of the Opposition have been set up inside the new Assembly building.
In addition, 38 offices have been set up in the building for provincial ministers, including three committee rooms and an office of the Assembly Secretary. A press conference hall, dispensary, library and a large cafeteria have also been built.
A security monitoring room, an Information Technology (IT) data centre and parking for more than 400 vehicles have also been set up in the new building.
Ch Pervaiz Elahi was informed that the painting and calligraphy work of the building was completed under the supervision of National College of Arts (NCA).
