Narendra Modi to move into 'North Block' in January

AHMEDABAD: While Narendra Modi may take some time to move to Delhi, he is poised to shift to a newly-built office in Gandhinagar which is already being unofficially dubbed as the ‘North Block’. The move will happen soon after the ‘kamurtas’, or the inauspicious period that ends in mid-January. The Prime Minister, incidently, operates out of South Block in New Delhi.

The new Rs 150-crore CMO complex, which has been readied in less than a year, has a south block too – modelled on the secretariat in the national capital — where other ministers will operate. The complex will officially be called ‘Panchamrut’, meaning that elixir for six crore Gujaratis will flow from here.

The four-storeyed complex — spread across 35,000 sq ft — has been built by the Roads & Buildings (R&B) department and designed by a leading Ahmedabad-based architect who designed the Gujarat high court and Amul Dairy building, apart from some corporate offices.

Given security concerns, a lot of bullet proof glass has been used in the windows and doors. The centrally air-conditioned building has a special room for cabinet meetings and will be constantly under CCTV surveillance. “The new CM office is directly connected to the first floor of the state assembly from where the CM, ministers and MLAs can enter the assembly hall,” said a senior R&B official.

Modi took keen interest in every detail of the design. Currently, Modi’s office is located on the fifth floor of block No.1 in Sachivalaya. Over the past few years, the scope of its activity has expanded considerably, under his centralised style of administration, with a number of staffers occupying space on the second, third and fourth floors.

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