Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday inaugurated ‘General Pool Office Accommodation-2’ at Kasturba Gandhi Marg in the National Capital. He also inaugurated the redeveloped ‘General Pool Residential Accommodation’ at Mohammadpur and Thyagraj Nagar in the National Capital.

Addressing those present on the occasion, Puri said redevelopment of these colonies have been done using ‘Shear Wall Monolithic Construction Technology’, one of the six modern, sustainable and fast-building technologies shortlisted from the ‘Global Housing Technology Challenge’ declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.

He also highlighted that the CPWD has used features like 100 per cent solar power generation, energy efficient fittings, waste treated water, rainwater harvesting in all these three projects.

General Pool Office Accommodation (GPOA)-2 at Kasturba Gandhi Marg is a state-of-the-art office building having plinth area of 61,454 sqm. It has two towers- G+9 storied office building (Tower I) and G+10 storied transit accommodation for National Defense College (Tower II) and its front entry is through an impressive 20-meter-high spherical globe made of structural glazing.

The Tower-I will accommodate the offices of the Ministries of Labour & Employment, Power and Ports, Shipping & Waterways which are currently located in Shram Shakti Bhawan and Transport Bhawan. It has the capacity of accommodating 3 Cabinet Ministers, 4 State Ministers, 3 Secretaries with their 1,315 officers/staff.

Tower-II of the building has 97 suites for National Defence College. This building has 6 conference rooms, a media briefing room, National power monitoring control room, cafeteria & CSD canteen, gym, community hall and double basement. There is a provision for parking approximately 600 cars in the basement and at surface. The work has been executed by the Central Public Works Department at a cost of Rs 325 crore against the sanctioned cost of Rs 351.37 crore.

The newly redeveloped General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) at Mohammadpur has 708 Quarters (380 Type II and 328 Type III) and it has been completed with 25 per cent saving against the sanctioned cost of Rs 362 crore.

GPRA at Thyagraj Nagar has 703 quarters (371 Type-II, 287 Type-III & 45 Type-IV) and has been completed with 30 per cent saving against the sanctioned cost of Rs 392 crore. This is in line with CPWD tradition of delivering quality along with economy in construction through value engineering. The old GPRA Colony at Thyagraj Nagar and Mohammadpur had 584 (G+1 to G+3) and 328 Type I Quarters were in dilapidated conditions and were de-constructed to pave the way for their redevelopment.

A considerable reduction in the ground coverage has been achieved in both the colonies with an increase in the green area coverage by three times, paving the way for providing more open green spaces for healthy lifestyle. Both the colonies are equipped with modern amenities including a community centre having shopping area, indoor play area, creche, stitching centre, meditation room, anganwadi, library etc.

“The availability of these two complexes will not only meet the accommodation needs of the Central Government employees but will also help in the commuting and government work of all concerned,” Puri said.