Telangana to construct new secretariat complex by demolishing existing structure

The Telangana government, which had earlier sought the Bison Polo grounds here, a sports facility belonging to the Ministry of Defence, for the construction of a new secretariat complex, has now decided to build it by demolishing the existing one, official sources said on Tuesday.

The state government is in the process of identifying an office space for accommodating the staff during the construction of the new secretariat complex, which is expected to begin soon, they added.

"The new secretariat will come up replacing the existing one. A clear picture on the new design of the new secretariat complex and when the foundation stone will be laid will be revealed by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao after the inauguration of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project on June 21," the sources told PTI.

"The government wants to shift all the staff and furniture to some of the offices located across the city temporarily. Getting an office space is not a problem. Though no firm plan has been communicated as to when the shifting will take place, senior officials have been asked to identify suitable locations," they added.

Most of the offices in the secretariat, located on a land measuring about 25 acres adjacent to the historic Hussain Sagar lake in the heart of the city, would be shifted to the places where the heads of the respective departments were currently located, the sources said.

The Andhra Pradesh government is vacating the buildings it occupied at a faster pace and is expected to hand them over to the Telangana government in accordance with the orders of the common governor of both the states, E S L Narasimhan, by June 19, a senior Telangana official said.

The Andhra Pradesh government was allotted certain buildings located in the secretariat complex after the bifurcation of the state in 2014 and the governor recently ordered reallocation of the buildings to Telangana under section 8 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.