Goan Forever	New Goa Assembly Complex
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The  extravagant  Goa State Legislative Assembly Complex, the new seat of the Government of Goa was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 5th March, 2000. The foundation stone for this 250 room project was laid by the late President of India, Dr Shanker Dayal Sharma on 22nd January, 1994.  Besides the main Assembly block, the Assembly complex has a secretariat block, a VIP block and a central courtyard . The entire complex is spread over 54,250 sq mts atop the Porvorim hillock overlooking the River Mandovi and the capital city Panjim, on the opposite bank of the Mandovi . The built up area of the main assembly complex is about 1,750 sq mts with most of the construction and allied works being done by Delhi based companies,

The assembly is centrally air-conditioned  and has a visitors gallery,  press gallery, electronic voting machine,  billboard, library with internet facility, printing press,  post office, bank, health center, computer-cum-e-mail center and a travel bureau ( It's almost like a mini city in itself ! ).  Describing the new assembly complex as a very luxurious one for Goa and as the project of the millennium, the Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly Shri Pratapsingh Raoji Rane said that unlike in the past where squabbles between minister reigned high for cabins at the Secretariat ( the old venue of the Legislative Assembly ) in Panjim, this new complex would leave no room for that as every cabin was designed and furnished uniformly and were all approximately 40 sq mts in size.

The present strength of the assembly is 40 although the new complex can seat 75 members.  According to Shri Rane, the new complex has two special provisions to devolve greater responsibility upon the elected representatives of the people in the discharge of their duties and the responsibilities assigned to them under the democratic framework. The first one is a video-cum-audio live recording of the performance of every legislator in the House for the sake of maintaining records. In the presence of live recording, it is hoped that the elected members would act with greater responsibility. The second is the  visitors gallery which would be open to the elected members of the local self government bodies, NGOs , representatives of political parties and member of the public.  There are six galleries in all with a seating capacity of 50 each. Four of these are meant exclusively for the public while one each would be reserved for the press and VIPs. The basic idea behind the galleries is to encourage  all segments of the democracy to have a close look at the functioning of the "Temple of Democracy" at the state level.

A distant view of the complex atop the Porvorim hillock  with the river Mandovi seen in the foreground

General Information  Architect Karan Grover & Associates, Baroda. Location Alto Porvorim, Bardez, North Goa facing Panjim, on the opposite bank of the river Mandovi. Rooms 250 Total cost  34.32 crore rupees Facilities Video conferencing, visitors gallery, press gallery, electronic voting machine, billboard, library with internet facility, printing press,  post office, bank, health center, computer-cum-e-mail center , travel bureau     Expenditure   Civil Works 16.19 crore rupees   Internal electrification 2.11 crores rupees   External Lighting 79 lakh rupees   Specially designed lifts 41 lakh rupees   Air conditioning 1.22 crore rupees   Landscaping 13 lakh rupees   Furnishing 3.13 crore rupees   Chandeliers ( 24 Nos) 24 lakh rupees   Digital Networking 87 lakh rupees ( All the departmental files would be produced on CD-ROMS and handed to the Archives )               Note:  (1)These statistics have been taken from the official records maintained by the Govt. of Goa.        (2) 1 crore = 10 million;  1 lakh = 100,000