Parliament will by the end of the year begin the construction of a new chamber block that will have the capacity to seat up to 450 members of parliament.<\/p>\n
The new structure to be located right in front of the premises of the current parliamentary chamber will take three years to build.<\/p>\n
Renowned Ghanaian – British international architect Sir David Frank Adjaye of Adjaye and Associates has designed the new structure and will oversee its construction.<\/p>\n
He paid a courtesy call on the Speaker of Parliament Prof. Mike Ocquaye on Friday during which the design for the structure was unveiled to the media.<\/p>\n
The current parliamentary chamber which can seat up to only 270 MPs will be turned into an auxiliary conference facility for parliament.<\/p>\n
The new structure is expected to have libraries, a parliamentary museum, prayer areas for MPs of all religions, a canteen, interview areas, among others.<\/p>\n
Prof. Ocquaye says there is a lot of goodwill from the executive arm government for the new parliamentary chamber project and \u201cthe president has agreed in principle to come and cut the sod for the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both the Majority Leader Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu and Minority Leader Harun Iddrisu expressed support for the new chamber project.<\/p>\n
Haruna Iddrisu advocated that a diplomatic room for former Presidents and Speakers of Parliament be included in the structure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to doing what we need to do internally to get this project going,\u201d Mr Iddrisu said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am impressed by what I have seen,\u201d Mr Mensah Bonsu said.<\/p>\n
The man building the new structure says it will be a great edifice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really a new wonderful way to show the incredible ark of history of the Ghanaian parliament and that will be visible for all to see,\u201d Sir David Adjaye said during the meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"