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Telangana is going to have a brand new Assembly and Secretariat buildings.
Ending years of speculation and uncertainty, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) has announced his Government’s decision to build new structures at a cost of Rs 500 crore.
While the new Assembly would come up at Errum Manzil, located at the heart of the city, at a cost of Rs 100 crore, the new Secretariat would be constructed with an estimated cost of Rs 400 crore at the existing premises next to the Hussain Sagar.
“The new Secretariat will have 5-6 lakh sq ft of built-up space. It will cost about Rs 400 crore,” the Chief Minister said, after the Cabinet meeting last night.
The Government will conduct ground-breaking ceremony on June 27 to begin construction works.
Ever since the State was formed in 2014, KCR has been trying to relocate the Secretariat and Assembly to a new location in the City. He wanted to build both the structures at the Bison Polo grounds in Secunderabad.
Since the property is owned by the Union Government, he made several representations to the Union Home Minister and the Prime Minister, requesting them to hand over the land to them. He offered to compensate profusely by providing land in around the city.
He even considered the Chest Hospital at Erragadda to build the new structures. Both the proposals fell flat, following a cold response from the Centre and severe opposition from activists.
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The Cabinet, which met for four hours on Tuesday, discussed the issue and decided to go for the Errum Manzil location for the Assembly.
The State Government has appointed a committee to study the Secretariat premises and come out with a report on the health of the existing buildings and what structures can be retained. Some of the buildings there are relatively new, which, the Opposition parties argue, can be retained.
The move to build the Secretariat at the existing premises was taken following the recent decision by the Andhra Pradesh Government to handover all the buildings under its control to Telangana. Nearly half of the Secretariat buildings were under the control of Andhra Pradesh.
Under the bifurcation agreement, the Andhra Pradesh Government has been allotted some buildings in Hyderabad, a designated combined capital for the two States for a period of ten years from the date of bifurcation. The buildings, however, were not being used by the Andhra Pradesh government, which shifted its operations to Amaravathi.
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