The construction of the fourteen-story New Secretariat Building at Calcutta marked the beginning of high-raise construction in India. Following Independence, new areas of administrative activity generated an enormous demand for office space. The programme for the New Secretariat called for maximizing floor space on a one-acre corner plot a kilometre away from the old Secretariat. In the absence of height and F.A.R. restrictions, the only constraint was the soil condition and high water-table, which hurled out the possibility of a basement for service-areas.