New Delhi: The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Wednesday passed a proposal to name its upcoming headquarters after former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The new headquarters of the SDMC is to be constructed in the Indraprastha Estate  near Pragati Maidan.

SDMC mayor Narendra Chawla proposed in a meeting of civic body House that the new upcoming headquarter of the South Body be named in the memory of former Prime Minister Bharat Ratna Atal Behari Vajpayee. The proposal to name the new headquarters after Mr Vajpayee was seconded by Leader of House Kamaljeet Sehrawat, leader of Congress party Abhishek Dutt and other members. Former Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee died following prolonged illness on August 16 at AIIMS.

According to senior official, the new 30 floors swanky building constructed over 8.75 acre land will be easily accessible from Ring Road as the site is very close to the IP Depot and Indraprasth Metro Station. After trifurcation of erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi, no space for SDMC headquarters was allocated for the last five years. The entire deliberative and executive wings of the SDMC have been functioning from Dr SPM Civic Center building at JLN Marg by sharing the covered area with North Delhi Municipal Corporation. The building which is being constructed by the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) would be an iconic green building.

The SDMC headquarters is currently in the Civic Centre building named after Jan Sangh ideologue Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

Earlier, the mayor, other councillors paid their rich tributes to Vajpayee. They appreciated Vajpayee’s efforts in enhancing the glory of India. The SDMC also condoled the demise of Somnath Chatterjee, M Karunanidhi, Balramji Dass Tandon, Sahib Singh Chauhan, R K Dhawan, Gurudas Kamat, Kuldeep Nayar, Ajit Wadekar and Vimal Khurana.

In the House meeting, the commissioner Puneet Kumar Goel proposed that all SDMC employees may contribute their one day basic pay for flood affected state of Kerala.  The proposal was unanimously passed in the meeting.  With contribution of one day basic pay by 43,000 employees of SDMC an amount of Rs 2.60 crore will be transferred to the Kerala Chief Minister Relief Fund.