EDMC to stake equal claim in Civic Centre

Four-and-a-half years after the trifurcation of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the East Delhi civic body is planning to stake claim for the city’s tallest building, Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre. The building, which houses South and North Delhi Municipal Corporation headquarters, is located in the municipal boundary of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. Well placed sources said that the EDMC is planning to claim equal stake in the building like the other two corporations and is exploring possibilities to shift its headquarter to the new address in Central Delhi.

A senior official told this newspaper that after proper deliberation within the EDMC a proposal for the claim in the civic centre will be placed before the competent authority. “In initial discussion, it was agreed that the civic centre was constructed by the erstwhile MCD from its own resources and after trifurcation like the liabilities, the EDMC must gets share in the building,” he said.

A well-placed source said that the two Corporations, North and South are functioning from the building and still a lot of space is lying vacant, which can easily accommodate the EDMC.

“At the time the NDMC took ownership of the building and South Delhi Municipal Corporation has given space to function from there till they build its own headquarters. Two civic bodies are functioning from one building then there is no harm if the third one starts functioning from the same building,” he added.

The civic centre is a complex of five multi-storeyed buildings spread over an area of 11.5 acres; occupying around 1.16 lakh square meters of built up floor area excluding basement parking and service block. Rectangular in shape, the site is close to the New Delhi railway and metro station. In all 42 elevators including high speed elevators, including eight escalators have been built into the complex to facilitate passenger movement.

Forty per cent of the area has been given to the Income Tax department on a rent of Rs 1,800 crore for 90 years.