New Delhi Secretariat building to come up at ITO

The Delhi Government has identified 10 acres of land to develop its new secretariat at ITO, which involves shifting the Income Tax Office, officials said on Thursday.  Earlier, the Public Works Department (PWD) had a ‘twin-tower’ concept for the new secretariat, but now that plan has been changed to a single tower.

“We have identified around 10 acres of land for the new Delhi Secretariat building at ITO, and a request to the Centre has also been sent. The plan is to demolish and redevelop the Income Tax Office, MSO Building and nearby area to make space for the new high-tech single tower,” Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh said.

The Delhi Secretariat is the official headquarters of the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. At present, the complex is located in the IP Estate in ITO and is also called the ‘Players Building’ — it was constructed to accommodate players during the 1982 Asian Games. The building was found to be “seismic unsafe” in 2023 in a study conducted by the Public Works Department (PWD).

The Income Tax Office will be moved to a redeveloped multi-storey building on the opposite side from where it is currently, Singh said.    According to the plan, the Government will redevelop a total of 18 acres of land, out of these five acres of land belong to the Income Tax Office, which will get space in a newly built office.

Several of the Delhi government’s offices are scattered around the city, and there is limited space left at the Players Building near Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, where the chief minister, her cabinet colleagues and top bureaucrats currently operate from.

Faced with the space crunch, the Delhi government has decided to build a new Delhi Secretariat at Indraprastha Estate, where the MSO building and Vikas Bhawan, north and south of Vikas Marg, would be redeveloped. Conceived several years ago, the project is moving to a preliminary stage.