The Palika Kendra is a 21-story building on

Sansad Marg Sansad Marg ( en, Parliament Street, formerly ''N-Block'') is a street located in New Delhi, India. The street gets its name from the Parliament House (Sansad Bhavan). The Parliament House, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, is located at the o ...

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

, India. Designed by Kuldip Singh and Mahendra Raj, it is among the few structures in Delhi that feature

Brutalist architecture Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the ba ...

. After its inauguration in 1984 with a height of , it remained one of the tallest buildings in Delhi for years. It serves as the headquarters of the

New Delhi Municipal Council New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is the municipal council of the city of New Delhi, Delhi, India. It covers an area of 42.7 km2 under its administration, which is commonly referred as Lutyens' Delhi. The only owner is Government of In ...

and hosts the main server and the command and control centre of the civic body. The Palika Kendra is among 62 buildings and structures that the

Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is a non-profit charitable organisation registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. In 2007, the United Nations awarded INTACH a special consultative status with Unite ...

is trying to get designated as modern heritages of the post-independent India. On the 150th birth anniversary of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

on 31 January 2019, the

Vice President of India The vice president of India (IAST: ) is the deputy to the head of state of the Republic of India, i.e. the president of India. The office of vice president is the second-highest constitutional office after the president and ranks second in the ...

Venkaiah Naidu Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu (born 1 July 1949) is an Indian politician who served as the 13th vice president of India from 2017 to 2022. He is the first Indian vice president born in independent India. He has also served as the minister of Housi ...

, inaugurated a grand wall

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

of Gandhi made up of

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

kulhars on a wall of the building.

Construction

The plot where the Palika Kendra stands used to host a tin shed that contained a small makeshift cinema hall for the entertainment of construction workers, who had been employed for developing and building the new capital of the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

. In the early 1930s, a building was inaugurated at this site for hosting the town hall of the New Delhi Municipal Committee. The town hall was demolished in the 1970s to make room for the new headquarters of the civic body. The Palika Kendra was designed by two renowned architects of India,

Kuldip Singh (architect) Kuldip Singh (1934 – 10 November 2020) was an Indian architect and urban planner known for his brutalist architecture designs. Biography Singh was born in Simla in 1934. He received the Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Delhi Polyt ...

and

Mahendra Raj Mahendra Raj (19248 May 2022) was an Indian structural engineer and designer who contributed to structural design of many buildings in India including the Hall of Nations at the Pragati Maidan in Delhi and the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad. Raj ...

. Inaugurated in 1984, the Palika Kendra remains one of the few structures in India that features the

style. There are 23 buildings from India that are included in the ''Atlas of Brutalist Architecture''—a "comprehensive volume" documenting this architectural style from across the world. With a height of , it remained one of the tallest buildings in Delhi for many years after its construction.

NDMC Headquarters

The Palika Kendra is situated at Sansad Marg, New Delhi, and houses the headquarters of the

(NDMC). It is the tallest building owned by the NDMC. The main server and the command and control centre of the civic body are also located in the building. Public places under the jurisdiction of the NDMC, where video surveillance cameras are installed, are monitored from the command and control centre by computer professionals and

Delhi Police The Delhi Police (DP) is the law enforcement agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). Delhi Police comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. In 2015, sanctioned strength of Delhi ...

personnel. During the

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...

, in May 2020, the headquarters was sealed for two days to be sanitised and disinfected after nine NDMC employees were found to be infected with the coronavirus.

Modern heritage

The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) approached the Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC) of the

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is a ministry of the Government of India with executive authority over the formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to the housing and urban development in Ind ...

in 2013 to designate 62 buildings and structures in Delhi—including the Palika Kendra—as "modern heritage", which would bring them under the protection of the Delhi Building Bylaws, 1983. These buildings had been constructed in Delhi after 1947 and are considered contemporary architectural heritages by different organisations, including the INTACH. Though the committee agreed with the proposal, it did not take any action on it for years. This attracted criticism from the

High Court of Delhi The High Court of Delhi (IAST: ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966'', with four judges, Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. ...

in 2016, when the court heard a petition filed by the Delhi chapter of the INTACH related to the responsibilities of the HCC and the Delhi Urban Art Commission in providing protection to post-independence modern architectural heritages.

Mural of Mahatma Gandhi

A grand mural depicting

made up of terracotta kulhars on a wall of the building was unveiled by the Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu, in the presence of

Union Minister The Union Council of Ministers Article 58 of the ''Constitution of India'' is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which is responsible for being the senior decision making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by t ...

Giriraj Singh Giriraj Singh (born 8 September 1952) is an Indian politician and the Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department in the 23rd Ministry of the Republic of India with a cabinet minister rank. He is the Member of Parliament from th ...

and the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

from

Meenakshi Lekhi Meenakshi Lekhi (born 30 April 1967) is an Indian politician and the current Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture of India from 7 July 2021. She is a Member of Parliament from New Delhi Parliamentary constituency in the 16th an ...

, during the celebration of the

Gandhi Jayanti Gandhi Jayanti is an event celebrated in India to mark the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. It is celebrated annually on 2 October, and is one of the three national holidays of India. The UN General Assembly announced on 15 June 2007 that it adop ...

on 31 January 2019. The mural was designed to pay tribute to Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary. A total of 3,870 kulhars, made by 150 potters from a mixture of soil collected from different parts of the country, were used in constructing this mural.

References

{{Authority control Government buildings in Delhi Office buildings in India Local government in Delhi Municipal buildings in India