Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister Okay Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) Sunday inaugurated the state’s new Secretariat in Hyderabad – a towering “Vaastu-compliant” constructing that was the CM’s pet challenge.
Located within the coronary heart of Hyderabad close to Hussain Sagar Lake, the brand new Secretariat has bullet-proof home windows in KCR’s workplace, a royal eating room and an elite sky lounge with glass partitions that provide an aerial view of town, together with the enduring Nizam-era water physique.
Styled with Indo-Saracenic or Neo-Mughal structure options, the Secretariat has been named after BR Ambedkar whose 125-feet bronze statue stands close to the brand new constructing, and which KCR had inaugurated on the latter’s 132nd start anniversary earlier this month.
Identified to be explicit about following “auspicious timings”, the CM selected the interval between 1.20 pm and 1.40 pm Sunday to enter his chamber within the Secretariat, which was inaugurated amid rituals and yagnas with clergymen chanting mantras.
The clergymen chanted mantras because the chief minister sat in his chair on the workplace. And one of many first information that he signed within the new Secretariat was the implementation of his scheme Dalit Bandhu for 2023-2024, which might give Rs 10 lakh help to eligible Dalit households.
“Dr BR Ambedkar’s message for the event of all sections is a giant inspiration to the state authorities. We fought peacefully by following the Gandhian ideology and achieved a separate Telangana state. The architect of the Indian Structure, Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s imaginative and prescient of enshrining Article 3 within the Structure helped the creation of Telangana,” the chief minister stated after the inauguration.
The Dr B.R. Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat contains eight flooring (decrease floor, floor flooring plus six) with the Chief Minister’s Workplace (CMO) on the high and the sky lounge above it.
“The sprawling construction has 24 elevators and 635 rooms, and 30 convention halls. Unfold over 2.25 acres, the constructing has the capability to accommodate 564 automobile parking. The whole space the place the centre has the constructing is 27.9 acres,” an announcement from the CMO learn Saturday. It added that the constructing’s design was impressed by Kakatiya structure and temples in Telangana and Gujarat.
An official from the state engineering division advised ThePrint that the “challenge value about Rs 1,000 crore”, although the CMO said that “Rs 550 crore had been spent on the constructing to date” and “the fee had risen 30 per cent” than what was first estimated.
Speaking concerning the constructing, the official added: “The sky lounge was designed to host the chief minister’s company (principally authorities officers and overseas delegates) and provides them an aerial view of town. The CMO on the sixth flooring has bullet-proof home windows and in addition the cupboard room the place the CM will maintain conferences with ministers.”
One other key attraction within the new constructing is the eating room which may seat 22. It contains white and golden interiors, a glittering tiled flooring, chandeliers and a big picket eating desk within the center with KCR’s {photograph} hanging on one wall.
Telangana’s new Secretariat has come up instead of the previous Secretariat, a Nizam-era constructing that was torn down in July 2020.
“The brand new constructing is not only concerning the lavish services,” chief engineer Ganpathi Reddy from the state’s roads and buildings division advised ThePrint. “The sooner constructing was not hearth security compliant, and plumbing traces and electrical installations had turn into previous. Furthermore, if a minister’s workplace was in a sure block, his employees workplace can be in one other block. There was numerous strolling concerned and confidential materials was additionally taken the identical manner. All this was a problem.”
The primary gate of the brand new secretariat is known as the ‘Bahubali Mahadwara,’ which is 24 toes excessive and fabricated from teakwood. All of the doorways within the complicated are fabricated from teakwood, an official from CMO stated.
A complete of 34 domes are within the constructing, with two large most important ones. On the 2 most important domes, the nationwide emblem has been put in.
In the meantime, taking objection to the construction of the secretariat, BJP State Chief and MP Bandi Sanjay advised the media individuals Sunday that it seems that the Secreteriat was constructed to please AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and a sure part of individuals. He additionally identified how the masjid, contained in the Secretariat, was constructed on a bigger space, compared to the temple.
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‘CM finalised each element’
Famend Chennai-based architects Oscar and Ponni have designed the brand new Secretariat.
In a written reply to ThePrint over mail the corporate stated that there have been “a number of discussions” with the CM earlier than finalising each element of the constructing, and these talks included the “rules of vaastu”.
“The idea of the brand new constructing is predicated on vaastu. Architects Ponni and Oscar had a number of days of discussions, one-to-one interactions and a design workshop with the CM at his workplace. He mentioned intimately the grasp planning, vaastu rules, site-grading, and floor-by-floor zoning of the totally different elements of the Secretariat,” in accordance with the communication from the staff.
“We needed to plan and design a number of spatial elements and the facades of the Secretariat and we needed to focus on with the up to date drawings and a number of other choices every day (with the CM) for nearly two weeks,” the communication said, including that KCR spent a number of hours with the staff finalising intricate factors of structure and inside designing.
In accordance with the design staff, “the distribution of entrances, cores, service cores and bathrooms is all in accordance with Vaastu Shastra”.
In addition they stated that “one of many necessities that KCR gave to the design staff was that the brand new Secretariat should final a minimum of 150 years”.
The outer panorama has been designed with native timber of Telangana and fountains. White color has been used for the Secretariat because it depicts purity, new beginnings and integrity, Oscar and Ponni’s staff additional stated.
The KCR authorities is touting the 265-foot Secretariat because the tallest constructing within the metropolis, taller than the enduring Charminar and even Delhi’s Qutub Minar.
Telangana’s roads and buildings minister Vemula Prashant Reddy had not too long ago stated the Secretariat was “larger than the Central Vista Parliament constructing (in New Delhi) which occupies solely 7 lakh sq. toes whereas Telangana Secretariat has 10.50 lakh sq. toes house”.
Why a brand new Secretariat
The concept of a brand new Secretariat was first proposed by the KCR authorities in 2017 and drew a lot backlash from opposition events in addition to residents within the state. Pleas in opposition to the demolition of the previous constructing have been filed within the Telangana Excessive Courtroom.
The brand new constructing was initially estimated to value Rs 400 crore – a determine which shot as much as Rs 617 crore by 2020. The quantity was formally sanctioned that 12 months and in July, Telangana’s previous Secretariat was demolished after the courtroom gave the go-ahead.
Amid the demolition, Congress chief Revanth Reddy filed a plea within the Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal alleging that the demolition would pollute Hussain Sagar Lake. However the tribunal too gave the inexperienced sign for the demolition.
“Some ‘Political Lilliputs’ ( enemies) created hurdles to the development of the brand new secretariat by demolishing the previous constructing on the identical place. The federal government didn’t take severe observe and moved ahead and constructed the state secretariat, which is one of some fantastic authorities constructions within the nation,” KCR stated on Sunday.
Explaining why the chief minister had determined to go for a brand new Secretariat, the Telangana CMO said Saturday that it was due to “frequent roof high collapses, energy brief circuit issues, lack of house for a superb canteen with all services, scarcity of parking services, administrative issues and lack of coordination between departments” within the previous constructing.
Ganpathi Reddy advised ThePrint that greater than 4,000 folks labored for over two years to construct the brand new palace-like construction, which may accommodate over 2,000 folks — ministers, secretaries, division officers and so forth.
The brand new complicated, just like the previous one, accommodates a temple, mosque and church. There’s additionally a hearth station, creche and dispensary within the auxiliary buildings, he stated.
“The CM needed the employees to have a greater workspace. Now, every minister and his employees have been positioned on the identical flooring. We’ve got enough parking and house for vehicular motion, in addition to a police safety block accommodating 300 personnel,” Reddy added.
Whereas the brand new Secretariat is Hyderabad’s latest attraction, some miss the previous constructing which had a “simplicity and sincerity”.
“The previous Secretariat simply stays a reminiscence now. The CMO, particularly within the Seventies, was so easy. The whole ambiance depicted sincerity. All that has modified now, and it’s a lavish new construction,” a retired Secretariat worker, who didn’t want to be named, advised ThePrint.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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