Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao laid the foundation stones for new Secretariat and Assembly buildings at separate ceremonies on Thursday.
The new Secretariat will come up on the same premises as the old one and the Assembly complex will come up on the premises of Errum Manzil. Both the existing structures will be demolished.
The Chief Minister first laid the foundation stone for the new Secretariat in the small garden behind D Block in the existing Secretariat at 10.49 am. He broke the ground with a crowbar as priests chanted hymns and offered prayers.
Mr Rao placed some concrete in the pit and the priests placed some granite blocks marking the formal laying of the foundation stone.
Present on the occasion were chief secretary S.K. Joshi, and members of the state Cabinet, MLAs, MLCs, chief adviser to the government Rajiv Sharma, TRS working president and MLA K.T. Rama Rao and the party's general secretary and Rajya Sabha member K. Keshav Rao.
Brushing aside protests over the unnecessary expense of constructing new buildings, the Cabinet had given the green signal to the project on June 18. It will cost the exchequer `400 crore to raise the buildings which will have a floor area of six lakh square feet.
The Cabinet also gave the nod for a new complex for the state legislature costing `100 crore. Both complexes are to be completed a year from the day the construction starts.
After concluding the ceremony at the secretariat, Mr Rao drove to Errum Manzil near Punjagutta and laid the foundation stone for the Legislature complex at 12.04 pm.
There have been protests over demolishing the existing heritage building for the new complex, but this too was disregarded.
The integrated legislature complex will house the Legislative Assembly and Council, a central hall on the lines of the one in Parliament House, and several modern facilities.
Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, vice-chairman of the Legislative Council Nethi Vidya Sagar, ministers, MLAs, MPs, MLCs and several other elected representatives were present at the ceremony for the Assembly complex.
When priests concluded the ceremony, the Chief Minister shared sweets with the Speaker and Council vice-chairman.
