Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) on Sunday inaugurated the state’s new secretariat in Hyderabad – a massive “Vastu-compliant” building that was the chief minister’s pet project.
Located in the heart of Hyderabad near the Hussain Sagar Lake, KCR’s office in the new secretariat has bullet-proof windows, a royal dining room and an elite sky lounge with glass walls, an aerial view of the city including the iconic Nizam-era Presents. Water bodies.
With features of Indo-Saracenic or Neo-Mughal architecture, the Secretariat is named after BR Ambedkar, whose 125 feet bronze statue stands near the new building, and which was inaugurated by KCR in the latter’s 132.Ra Birthday earlier this month.
The chief minister, who is known to follow “shubh muhurat”, chose the time between 1.20 pm and 1.40 pm on Sunday to enter his chamber in the secretariat, which was inaugurated amidst rituals. sacrifices With the priests chanting.
The priests chanted while sitting on the chair in the Chief Minister’s office. And one of the first files he signed at the new secretariat was the implementation of his scheme Dalit Bandhu for 2023-2024, which will give Rs 10 lakh assistance to eligible Dalit families.
“Dr BR Ambedkar’s message for the development of all sections is a great inspiration for the state government. We fought a peaceful battle following the Gandhian ideology and got a separate Telangana state. The vision of Dr BR Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, to enshrine Article 3 in the Constitution helped in the creation of Telangana,” the chief minister said after the inauguration.
Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat Consists of eight floors (ground floor, ground plus six) with the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) at the top and Sky lounge above it.
“The huge structure has 24 lifts and 635 rooms and 30 conference rooms. Spread over 2.25 acres, the building has a parking capacity of 564 cars. The total area where the center building is located is 27.9 acres,” read a statement from the CMO on Saturday It added that the design of the building was inspired by Kakatiya architecture and temples in Telangana and Gujarat.
A state engineering department official told ThePrint that “the cost of the project is around Rs 1,000 crore”, although the CMO said “Rs 550 crore has been spent on the building so far” and that “the cost had escalated by 30 per cent”. It was estimated earlier.
Talking about the building, the official said: “The Sky Lounge was designed to host the Chief Minister’s guests (mostly government officials and foreign delegates) and give them an aerial view of the city. Bullet in the CMO on the sixth floor There are proof windows and there is also a cabinet room where the CM will hold meetings with ministers.”
Another major attraction in the new building is the dining room which can seat 22 people. It has white and gold colored interiors, glossy tiled floors, chandeliers and a large wooden dining table in the center with KCR’s picture hanging on one of the walls.
The new Secretariat of Telangana replaced the old Secretariat, a Nizam-era building that was demolished in July 2020.
Ganapathy Reddy, chief engineer of the state’s Roads and Buildings Department, told ThePrint, “The new building is not just about lavish facilities. “The earlier building was not fire safety compliant, and the plumbing lines and electrical installations were out of date. Also, if a minister’s office was in a certain block, his staff office would be in another block. There was a lot of moving involved.” And the classified material was also taken in the same way.It was all a hassle.
The main gate of the new secretariat is called ‘Bahubali Mahadwara’, which is 24 feet high and made of teak wood. A CMO official said that all the doors of the complex are made of teak wood.
The building has a total of 34 domes, of which two are the main ones. The national emblem has been installed on the two main domes.
Meanwhile, objecting to the structure of the secretariat, BJP state president and MP Bandi Sanjay told media persons on Sunday that it appeared that the secretariat was being set up to please AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and a certain section of people. was created. He also pointed out how the mosque inside the secretariat was built in a larger area than the temple.
‘CM has completed every detail’
Renowned Chennai-based architects Oscar and Ponni have designed the new secretariat.
In a written reply to ThePrint over mail, the company said it had “multiple discussions” with the chief minister before finalizing each and every part of the building and these discussions included “principles of Vastu”.
“The concept of the new building is based on Vastu. Architects Ponni and Oscar held several days of discussions, one-to-one talks and a design workshop with the CM at his office. They discussed master planning, Vastu principles, site-grading and discussed in detail the floor-by-floor zoning of various components of the Secretariat,” according to the communication from the team.
“We had to plan and design several spatial components and aspects of the secretariat and we had to discuss the updated drawings and several options on a daily basis (with the chief minister),” the communication said. Spent many hours with the team to finalize the intricate points of architecture and interior designing.
According to the design team, “the distribution of the entrance, core, service core and toilets are all in accordance with Vastu Shastra”.
He also said that “one of the requirements given by KCR to the design team was that the new secretariat should last for at least 150 years”.
The exterior landscape has been designed with native trees of Telangana and fountains. Oscar and the team at Ponni further added that the color white has been used for the secretariat as it signifies purity, new beginnings and integrity.
The KCR government is touting the 265-foot secretariat as the tallest building in the city, taller than the iconic Charminar and even Delhi’s Qutub Minar.
Telangana Roads and Buildings Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy recently said that the Secretariat is “bigger than the Central Vista Parliament House (in New Delhi), which is only 7 lakh sq ft, while the Telangana Secretariat has 10.50 lakh sq ft.” “.
why a new secretariat
The idea of a new secretariat was first proposed by the KCR government in 2017 and there was much opposition from the opposition parties as well as citizens in the state. A petition was filed against the demolition of the old building in the Telangana High Court.
The new building was initially estimated to cost Rs 400 crore – a figure raised to Rs 617 crore by 2020. The amount was officially approved that year and in July, the old Telangana secretariat was demolished following a go-ahead by the court.
Amidst the demolition, Congress leader Revanth Reddy filed a petition in the National Green Tribunal alleging that the demolition would pollute the Hussain Sagar Lake. But the tribunal also gave the go-ahead for the demolition.
He said, “Some ‘political lilliputs’ (enemies) obstructed the construction of the new secretariat by demolishing the old building at the same site. The government did not take serious note and went ahead and constructed the state secretariat, which is one of the few wonders of the country.” One of the government structures,” KCR said on Sunday.
Explaining why the chief minister decided to go for a new secretariat, the Telangana CMO on Saturday said it was facing “frequent roof collapses, power short circuit problems, space for a good canteen with all facilities”. The shortfall was due to “lack of parking facilities”. Administrative problems in the old building and lack of coordination between departments”.
Ganapathy Reddy told ThePrint that more than 4,000 people worked for more than two years to build the new palace-like structure, which could include over 2,000 people—ministers, secretaries, department officials, etc.
The new complex, like the old one, accommodates a temple, mosque and church. He said that the auxiliary buildings also have a fire station, crèche and dispensary.
“The CM wanted the employees to have a better workspace. Now every minister and his staff have been made to sit on the same floor. We have adequate parking and space for vehicular movement, as well as a police security block to accommodate 300 personnel.”
While the new secretariat is Hyderabad’s newest attraction, some people remember the old building which had “simplicity and honesty”.
“The old secretariat is now just a memory. CMO, especially in the 1970s, was that simple. There was sincerity in the whole atmosphere. Now all that has changed, and it is a grand new structure,” a retired secretariat employee, who did not wish to be named, told ThePrint.
(Editing by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)