Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani lays foundation stone for BJP's Saurashtra zone office

New Delhi, July 28: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani laid the foundation stone for a new building which will function as the Saurashtra zonal office of BJP, as well as the office of the party's Rajkot city unit in Rajkot on Monday. The construction of the new office building will take around 18 months.

Rupani laid the foundation stone of the zonal cum city unit office building via video conferencing from Gandhinagar. He was joined by CR Paatil. The newly-appointed president of Gujarat BJP, and Bhikhu Dalsaniya, BJP general secretary (organisation) in the state.

According to reports, the proposed building will come up on a 2,288 square metre plot. The ground floor-plus-three-storeyed building will occupy a total area of 51,000 sqm and also have a cellar, which will be used as a parking lot cum store room.

"On the first floor, offices of the president and the general secretaries of BJP's Rajkot city unit will be located. An information technology war-room, a press room, a social media cell and a pantry will also be available on the first floor," said BJP spokesman for Saurashtra-Kutch, Raju Dhruv.

On the second floor, there will be a chamber of BJP's state unit president, offices of various morchas (cells) of the party, a library, a conference room as well as an accounts office. On the third floor, there will be a conference room having a seating capacity of 555 persons, waiting area and toilet blocks.

"There will be three elevators, two stairwells and a ramp for the movement of people in the building. On the terrace, solar panels will be installed for generating electricity. The semi-green building has been conceptualised keeping in mind the needs of the party for the next 25 years," Dhruv further said.

It can be seen that Rajkot is the hometown and election constituency of Rupani. Presently, the party's city unit has an office in Karanpara area.

"While our party organisation does not have zonal units, the proposed new building will have space and facilities to convene meetings of Saurashtra zones as Rajkot is the centre of Saurashtra-Kutch," said Dhruv.

When asked about the project's cost, the spokesman said, "Now that the layout and the design have been finalised, and the foundation stone has been laid, we shall conduct the exercise of estimating the cost of the project."