Delhi Legislative Assembly
When the British Government shifted the country’s capital from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911, they built this building. The building built in 1912, designed by E. Montague Thomas to hold the Imperial Legislative Council and subsequently the Central Legislative Assembly (after 1919), until the newly constructed Parliament House of India in New Delhi (Sansad Bhawan) was inaugurated on 18 January 1927. Seth Fateh Chand, a resident of Sindh (now Pakistan), was its contractor. The building was built on the land of Chandrawal village.
The building also housed the Secretariat of the Government of India, and was built after the capital of India shifted to Delhi from Calcutta. The temporary secretariat building was constructed in a few months’ time in 1912. It functioned as the Secretariat for another decade, before the offices shifted to the present Secretariat Building on Raisina Hill.
The clock tower of the Delhi Legislative Assembly building is a prominent feature, marked by its square structure with chamfered corners and arched alcoves. It is 23 meters high and incorporates projected porches with two circular pillars as main entrances. The original clock mechanism, installed by J.B. Joyce & Company of England, has been meticulously restored, along with other original fixtures and plaster.
Public entry is genrally not allowed except on special ocassions when govt organizes events for the public. On those ocassions one can have unrestricted entry. The nearest metro is Vidhan Sabha Metro station.
