Tourism Ministry office at Transport Bhawan to be shifted to building near India Gate

New Delhi: The Tourism Ministry's office currently located in the Transport Bhawan on Parliament Street will be shifted to a building near India Gate, a senior official said on Saturday.

The Transport Bhawan, built in the 1960s near the old Parliament building, has to be vacated for reusing the site as part of the Central Vista redevelopment project, sources said.

The new building of Parliament is slated to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.

The Transport Bhawan currently houses offices of the Tourism Ministry, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, and the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, besides other offices.

Also known as Parivahan Bhawan, the six-storey building is located at 1, Parliament Street in the heart of the national capital.

According to a marble plaque installed on its ground floor, the Transport Bhawan was inaugurated by the then Information and Broadcasting Minister Indira Gandhi on September 20, 1965.

"Our (Tourism Ministry) office will move to the Jodhpur Officers' Hostel barracks facing the India Gate Hexagon. We have been allotted eight blocks in it. The Central Vista Oversight Committee office is located in the same premises housing the barracks," the senior official told PTI.

Asked when the Tourism Ministry's office will be shifted out to the new location, he said, "very soon".

The redevelopment project of the Central Vista — the nation’s power corridor — envisaged a new triangular Parliament building, a common central secretariat, the revamping of the three-kilometre-long Rajpath from Vijay Chowk to India Gate, a new prime minister’s residence and a prime minister’s office, and a new vice-president’s enclave.

While the new Parliament building will be inaugurated on Sunday, the revamped Rajpath (renamed to Kartavya Path) and the Central Vista lawns were thrown open to the public in September last year.