Rashtrapati Bhavan will be open for public viewing for five days a week; visitors can book their slots online
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
Rashtrapati Bhavan will be open for public viewing for five days in a week from December 1, 2022. The Rashtrapati Bhavan tour will be available on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (except on Gazetted Holidays) in five time slots i.e. 1000-1100h, 1100-1200h, 1200-1300h, 1400-1500h and 1500-1600h.
Apart from Rashtrapati Bhavan tour, people can visit Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum Complex six days in a week from Tuesday to Sunday (except on Gazetted Holidays.)
Every Saturday, people can also witness the Change of Guard Ceremony at the Forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan from 0800 hrs to 0900 hrs. The Ceremony will not take place on Saturday if it is a Gazetted Holiday or if it is so notified by Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Rashtrapati Bhavan will be open for public viewing for five days a week; visitors can book their slots online at the website http://rashtrapatisachivalaya.gov.in/rbtour.
Rashtrapati Bhavan
Rashtrapati Bhavan, home to the President of the world’s largest democracy, epitomizes India’s strength, its democratic traditions and secular character.
Rashtrapati Bhavan was the creation of architects of exceptional imagination and masterfulness, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker. It was Sir Lutyens who conceptualized the H shaped building, covering an area of 5 acres on a 330 acre estate. This mansion has a total of 340 rooms spread over four floors, 2.5 kilometres of corridors and 190 acres of garden area.
Painstaking efforts of thousands of labourers including masons, carpenters, artists, carvers, and cutters saw the completion of this masterwork in the year 1929. Originally built as the residence for the Viceroy of India, Viceroy’s House as it was then called, has metamorphosed into today’s Rashtrapati Bhavan. From being a symbol of imperial domination and power, it is today emblematic of Indian democracy and its secular, plural and inclusive traditions. Former President of India, R. Venkataraman has rightly said, “Nature and man, rock and architecture, have rarely collaborated to so fine a purpose as in the fashioning of the magnificent Rashtrapati Bhavan.”
When constructed, it was called the Viceroy’s House. The name changed to Government House on August 15, 1947 when India became independent. Finally, its name was changed to Rashtrapati Bhavan during the term of President Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan has served as a home to Viceroy Lord Irwin and subsequently to other Viceroys of India till Lord Mountbatten, the last British Viceroy and the first Governor-General of independent India in 1947. Lord Mountbatten administered the oath of Prime Minister to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru under the Central Dome of Rashtrapati Bhavan in 1947. C. Rajagopalachari, the first Indian Governor-General also took oath under the Central Dome on June 21, 1948 and became the first Indian to reside at the Government House, as it was then called.
November 25,2022
