Renovation work on Niti Aayog building's fifth floor estimated to cost Rs 9.26 cr: RTI reply

An amount of Rs 9.26 crore has been allocated for renovation work on the fifth floor of Niti Aayog building that has offices of the government think tank's CEO, Atal Innovation Mission's MD and young professionals, among others, according to an RTI reply.

The RTI reply said that an amount of Rs 34 lakhs has been approved for allocation for horticulture, which includes installation, maintenance, replacement of all plants.

The Niti Aayog building is located in the Parliament Street in the national capital. While CEO Amitabh Kant now sits in the fifth floor, the think tank's Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar and four members continue to work from their respective offices in the first floor.

"... 2015 onwards, routine maintenance work was carried out on the fifth floor of Niti Aayog Building.

"During the year 2018-19, a sum of Rs 8.40 crore has been allocated to CPWD for renovation, refurbishment, re-development of fifth floor of building towards civil, electric and furniture items. Besides, a sum of Rs 34 lakhs has been approved for the allocation to CPWD for horticulture," the RTI reply said.

In addition to it, a sum of Rs 0.52 crore has been incurred for networking and telephone cabling, it said.

The fifth floor has offices of the CEO, Managing Director of Atal Innovation Mission and Director General of Data Management and Evaluation Office (DMEO). Earlier, Kant's office was in the second floor.

Besides, young professionals, consultants and technical officials have been allocated space in the fifth floor, Niti Aayog said in the RTI reply.

As per the reply, in the fifth floor, there are 196 indoor plants and area of vertical garden is 112 square metre.

The renovated fifth floor has a built up area of about 40,000 square feet and has 9 washrooms , 165 work stations, 1 CEO cabin,5 executive cabins, 2 conference rooms 2 and 53 cubicles, the RTI reply said.

In a statement issued on Monday, Niti Aayog said the fifth floor was redesigned and driven by demands of the organisation, maximising the efficiency of space utilisation".

"Fifteen offices of DMEO were closed and converged in one location along with Atal Innovation Mission, which was partly functioning from Vigyan Bhawan. From the original capacity of 85, the total seating capacity has been raised to 300," it added.

About Rs 34 lakh for horticulture, the statement said this is only an approved amount for CPWD (Central Public Works Department) for horticulture and only an amount of Rs 10 lakh has been spent and released to CPWD.

A senior Niti Aayog official, who sits in the fifth floor, said it has modern features and gives positive feelings and provides good work environment.

As per the statement, Niti Aayog Bhawan is more than 60 years old and that the fifth floor had not been renovated before.

The renovated fifth floor was was inaugurated by Union Ministers Jitendra Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri and Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar on February 26.