State Roads and Buildings Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy announced that the chief minister would inaugurate the building on 17 February.
Chief Minister KCR at Telangana Secretariate building in November. (Supplied)
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will inaugurate the newly constructed Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat building on 17 February, the state’s Roads and Buildings Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy has said in a statement.
It has been decided to inaugurate the new building on KCR’s birthday, according to the minister for Roads and Buildings.
The construction of the new secretariat complex started in November 2020 after the government cleared the legal hurdles.
Equipped with modern facilities, the iconic building near Hussain Sagar lake in the heart of the city has been designed with lower-ground, ground and 11 floors, with a built-up area of 64,989 square meters — around 7 lakh square feet.
The building, with all the modern amenities, cost the taxpayers more than ₹600 crore. KCR laid the foundation stone for the new building on 27 June, 2019.
According to officials, approximately 90 percent of the work in all wings of the new building has been completed, and the remaining 10 percent of work, including dome construction and some blocks, will be completed by the end of this month.
The Roads and Buildings Department will hand over the premises to the General Administration Department shortly after the construction work is completed.
The new building has been mired in controversy since the state government decided to construct it.
The road to get the new secretariat building in the state was cleared on 29 June, 2020, when the Telangana High Court dismissed a batch of petitions challenging the state government’s decision to construct it.
A division bench of the high court passed this order while dealing with a batch of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed by concerned citizens, including Congress parliamentarian and the party’s state president A Revanth Reddy, against the demolition of the existing secretariat.
Within days of the high court order, the Telangana government started to demolish the old building.
The site was shielded from the media glare and even the court had to intervene in this regard. The government eventually allowed the media to visit the site.
After the demolition of the old secretariat building, a fresh controversy erupted over a mosque and a temple.
The chief minister had to apologise for the damage to the religious structures.
“I am sorry about the incident. This happened unexpectedly. It should not have happened. The government’s intention is to build a new secretariat complex by demolishing the old buildings without causing any damage to the temple or the mosques,” an official release from the chief minister’s office quoting KCR said on 10 July, 2020.
According to the statement, KCR said the temple and the mosque were damaged after debris fell on them during the demolition of the secretariat buildings adjacent to them.
He promised that a new temple and mosque would be constructed over a much bigger area on the new secretariat premises.
On 15 Sepetmeber, 2022, KCR decided to name the new Telangana secretariat after the “Father of the Indian Constitution”, BR Ambedkar.
The move was seen as an effort to showcase the state government as constitutionalist in nature.
“It is a proud moment for the people of Telangana that the state’s main administration headquarters — Secretariat — is named after India’s social philosopher and intellectual BR Ambedkar. This decision is exemplary for India. The Telangana government is moving forward by adhering to Ambedkar’s philosophy that all the people of India should get equal respect in all fields,” said KCR in a statement.
May 04, 2024
May 04, 2024
May 04, 2024
May 04, 2024
May 04, 2024
May 04, 2024
