Western Court to be replaced by MP guest houses

In a bid to provide accommodation to all the parliamentarians, the Western Court transit hostel, a landmark building at Janpath in Connaught Place, may soon become a part of history as it is all set to be replaced by residential guest houses for members of Parliament.

The Delhi Development Authority has decided to change the land use from government offices to residential flats of the Western Court that is spread across 7.76 acres. The authority has decided to change the land use in its recent meeting chaired by lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung. A public notice inviting suggestions and objections is to be issued in this matter.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat had requested that additional suites be built in the vacant space available in the Western Court, for which it required change of land use of the available land from a government office to a residential hostel.

“After the land use is altered, the land in question will be handed over to Parliament to build the flats. The Western Court, which comes under Zone D, has existing land use as government office and has suites which serve as transit accommodation for parliamentarians,” a Raj Niwas source said, adding that the DDA meeting has already approved a proposal to this effect.

Thapar House is located to its North and Hotel Janpath to its the South. On its East, is Janpath and Kerala House is to its West. The move seems to be a part of the plan to build more flats for parliamentarians in the national capital so that they need not stay in luxurious hotels, which cost crores to the state exchequer.

The proposed guest house on Janpath Road will have 100 rooms. At present, most of the Lok Sabha members live in MP flats in North Avenue and South Avenue, close to Rashtrapati Bhavan, and also in Narmada and Kaveri Blocks.

In the absence of sufficient accommodation, newly-elected MPs are often housed in Hotel Ashok.

As many as 232 flats in North Avenue built over 22 acres land can accommodate 193 MPs while 163 MPs live in the 196 South Avenue flats built over 25 acres of land.