In all likelihood, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao would operate from his new residence-cum-camp office at Somajiguda from Diwali this year, if not Dasara as hoped earlier.
Construction of the new building, which had begun nearly three months ago behind the premises of the present camp office in Somajiguda, is going on at a brisk pace. Part of the work goes on even during the nights using flood-lights. Scores of labourers are sweating it out round-the-clock in shifts to ready the building. Slab of the two-floor building has been laid and soon after completion of the elevation work, interior decorators would step in to furnish the building.
“As per schedule, the Chief Minister was supposed to perform the traditional house-warming ceremony and enter the new residence on Vijaya Dasami festival, an auspicious occasion. In case of any delay, in all probability the muhurat would be fixed for Diwali,” an officer of Roads and Buildings Department said. The two-floor building will have nearly one lakh square feet of built-up space.
Parking space of the building will accommodate nearly 200 four-wheelers. The present camp-office-cum-residence of the Chief Minister was constructed in 2005 during late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s regime with an estimated cost of Rs. 10 crore. Following his death in a helicopter crash, the building was occupied by the succeeding Chief Ministers K. Rosaiah and N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao also shifted to this building after being elected as Chief Minister in 2014. But he was using only the residence part of the building and never used the camp office portion, which was lying vacant. Different proposals were being mooted on how to utilise the vacant camp office once the Chief Minister moves into the new building.
Sources said Mr. Rao wanted a vaastu-compliant residence and office building. As per his instructions, parts of the lands belonging to adjacent IAS Officers Association building and the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) were acquired.
