The honeycomb like towering edifice with a circular building housing the two houses of the Maharashtra state legislature, better known as the Vidhan Bhavan at Nariman Point, completed 25 years on Wednesday.
MUMBAI: The honeycomb like towering edifice with a circular building housing the two houses of the Maharashtra state legislature, better known as the Vidhan Bhavan at Nariman Point, completed 25 years on Wednesday.
The news was conveyed by Legislative Assembly Speaker Babasaheb Kuppekar to legislators amid thumping of desks.
He said the new building, close to the Mantralaya was inaugurated by former prime minister, the late Mrs Indira Gandhi on April 19, 1981. Senior Shiv Sena member Subhash Desai urged the chair to bring out a commemorative memento to mark the occasion.
Rekha Khedekar of the Bharatiya Janata Party wanted the House to pay tribute to engineers and architects who designed and constructed the building.
Senior PWP member Ganpatrao Deshmukh disclosed that then public works minister (who later became the State chief minister and Union home minister) the late SB Chavan had sent officials to Malaysia to study building protection techniques.
Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha facts
- Former Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi, clad in a traditional Maharashtrian nine-yard sari, inaugurated the Vidhan Bhavan complex on April 19, 1981, a Sunday.
- The old Vidhan Bhavan houses the state police headquarters, including the offices of the Director-General of Police, near Regal cinema in Colaba.
- The first ever meeting of the Legislative Council of Bombay Province was held on January 22, 1862.
- The Council had only 10 members.
- Built in 1876 the old Council Hall was earlier used as a sailors’ home. It was taken over by the government in 1928 and converted into the Vidhan Bhavan.
- Due to space constraints construction of the new Vidhan Bhavan was taken up on May 27, 1974.
- The new building was inaugurated during the tenure of chief minister A R Antulay and Governor O P Mehra.
- The circular dome houses the two houses of the bicameral legislature. The 288-member Legislative Assembly has an overall seating capacity of 304 members.
- The 78-member Legislative Council has an overall capacity of 130 members.
- The Central Hall where the joint sittings of both Houses are held has an overall sitting capacity of 400 members.
- The backdrop to the circular dome is provided by the 21-storeyed honeycomb-like tower building.
- The power requirement of the premises is 1,800 KVA which is powered by three 1,000 KVA transformers in the basement. Each house has 450 to 600 light bulbs.
- The premises are centrally air-conditioned with a 450-tonne cooling plant in the basement.
- A new hydro-pneumatic water pumping technique used which has done away with putting up huge water storage tanks on the roof.
- There are 145 clocks in all offices in the building.
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