78 years after independence, India’s Prime Minister’s Office will leave the South Block for a new address

The North Block and South Block, which had served as the nerve centre of the govt for nearly eight decades, will become a public museum, NDTV reports

India’s Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) will shift from its historic location in the South Block next month, according to broadcaster NDTV.

Under the Central Vista project, the PMO will be relocated several hundred metres away to the Executive Enclave, which will also host the Cabinet Secretariat, National Security Council Secretariat and a conferencing facility, it said in a report on Sunday, citing sources.

The reason for the new office buildings is space constraints, lack of modern facilities, and, in order to maintain the country’s “image as an emerging economic power”, NDTV says. The new PMO will also be closer to the official residence of the prime minister.

The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions had previously shifted to Kartavya Bhavan-3, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated earlier in August.

At the time, Modi had said the administration was working out of buildings built during the British colonial era, highlighting the poor working conditions, lack of adequate space, lighting, and ventilation.

The new PMO may also get a new name that is in line with the naming trend for other Central Vista projects.

In his first address to the PMO after taking charge in his third term, Modi had said: "The PMO should be 'people's PMO'. It cannot be Modi's PMO."

With the shifts in major offices, the North Block and the South Block – the nerve centre of the Indian government for nearly eight decades – will become the “Yuge Yugeen Bharat Sangrahalaya” public museum.

An agreement has already been signed between the National Museum and France Museums Development to cooperate in developing the museum, the Indian government says.

"This project (is) aimed at showcasing India's cultural heritage - a celebration of timeless & eternal India to explore our proud past, illuminate the present & imagine the bright future."