Hyderabad: High Court allows secretariat demolition

Hyderabad: The stage is now set for demolition of the old secretariat building. Following the green signal from the High Court, officials swung into action and have cleared all the left-over equipment like some servers, etc, and have locked the gates.

It is learnt that the process of demolition of the buildings, including heritage buildings inside the premises, would be completed in shortest possible time. Construction of new would may start in September.

GAD Secretary Vikas Raj and Rural Development Special Chief Secretary Sunil Sharma visited the abandoned secretariat and prepared a report on the status of the buildings, including the J, K, L and H blocks which were allocated to Andhra Pradesh after the bifurcation of the state and have been taken over by the Telangana government later.

It is learnt that the government is going to use the latest technology to demolish these buildings so that it will not create any problem for anyone. In all probability, it may use the 15-day lockdown period for demolition of most of these buildings since people will be indoors.

The debris may be cleared by end of August and the new buildings would be ready in 15 months from the date when construction would begin. It may be mentioned here that the government had got some designs already prepared but the process got delayed as the issue got entangled in legal controversy.

Interestingly, the government told the court that it has not taken any further step in finalisation of building plans of the proposed complex as the matter is sub-judice in the court.

An amount of Rs 300 to Rs 400 crore is required for the proposed new buildings. But sources say that by the time the new buildings are ready, the cost may go up to Rs 1200 crore.