New Secretariat will cost Rs 300 to Rs 400 crore, Telangana government informs HC

The court directed the government to file a detailed affidavit, giving details like the construction area, complex design, estimated cost and time required.
Telangana High Court (File Photo | EPS)
Telangana High Court (File Photo | EPS)

HYDERABAD:  The State government on Wednesday informed the High Court that the estimated cost of the proposed new Secretariat complex is about Rs 300 to Rs 400 crore and it requires about 12 months time to complete construction of the complex. 

It said that the designs of the proposed complex are not yet finalised due to the case pending before the High Court. The government has filed an affidavit before the court in this regard.

On January 2 this year, a division bench of the court, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy, while referring to recession prevalent across the globe and the State’s fund crunch, asked the State government whether it still wanted to go ahead with its proposal to construct a new complex and how much money it would spend on the same. 

The bench directed the government to file a detailed affidavit, giving details like the construction area, complex design, estimated cost and time required. The bench passed this order in a batch of PILs filed separately in 2016 by Congress MLA T Jeevan Reddy, advocate T Rajinikanth Reddy and the Forum for Good Governance, an NGO represented by its secretary M Padmanabha Reddy, seeking the court to grant stay of shifting the offices of Telangana Secretariat to other buildings and demolition of existing structures to construct new buildings in its place. 

Recently, Congress MP A Revanth Reddy and Prof PL Vishweshwar Rao, vice-president of Telangana Jana Samithi, also filed the PILs challenging the impending demolition of Secretariat buildings. 

Secretariat design not finalised as cases pending

Pursuant to the earlier direction of the court, the State government, represented by Principal Secretary to Transport, Roads and Buildings Sunil Sharma, filed an affidavit informing that the Cabinet will take a final decision on designs of the proposed new Secretariat complex, which are not yet finalised due to pendency of the PILs before the court. Conceptual plans are received from various architects and the same are under evaluation.

As for the construction area, the principal secretary stated that the area allotted to all the 32 departments which were functioning in the Secretariat complex prior to their vacating the said building is 4.45 lakh square feet, and that the areas to be allotted will be finalised after finalisation of the designs of the complex.

On earlier occasion, the court was informed that after the Cabinet has taken the decision on June 18 last year, all departments housed in the present Secretariat were shifted out from the existing buildings. The matter is expected to come up for hearing on January 22.

12 months time

The government also informed the High Court that it requires about 12 months time to build the new Secretariat complex 

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