The chief minister had laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Secretariat on June 27, 2019 but the works started only in January 2021, delayed by the covid-19 pandemic, court cases and other issues.
The new secretariat of Telangana has been named after B R Ambedkar with the intention that people's representatives and the entire government machinery should work to realise the ideals of the Architect of the Indian Constitution, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said on Sunday.
Rao inaugurated the new Secretariat complex, which stands 265 feet tall and is spread over an area of 10,51,676 square feet in a sprawling of 28 acres of land here. He said he considered it the opportunity of a lifetime to have inaugurated this "magnificent secretariat complex".
“It is with Ambedkar’s message and in Gandhi's way that the journey of Telangana continues,” he said. The chief minister said that the earlier Planning Commission (since replaced by NITI Aayog) had kept nine districts of Telangana under the backward districts category but now there was no village as progressive as those of Telangana.
He thanked officials and stakeholders for striving hard for the development of the state. A 'Sudarsana Yagam' was performed from 6 AM and Rao occupied his chambers in the sixth floor after the rituals concluded at around 1.30 PM.
The ministers of the state government also occupied their respective chambers. Considering the inadequacies of the former Secretariat complex built during undivided Andhra Pradesh, a government-appointed expert committee favoured construction of a new building.
The chief minister had laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Secretariat on June 27, 2019 but the works started only in January 2021, delayed by the covid-19 pandemic, court cases and other issues.
The building stands 265 feet tall, and a press release issued by the government said no state had such a tall Secretariat. It is also one of the largest Secretariats in the country, the release added.
The domes of the new Secretariat have been built in the styles of the Neelakanteswara Swamy temple of the Kakatiya period in Nizamabad, designs of the palaces of the royals of Wanaparthy 'Samsthanam' in Telangana and the pattern of the Hanuman temple in Sarangpur, Gujarat, according to the release.
The construction was done "flawlessly" with the instructions of Roads and Buildings (R&B) department, IGBC (Indian Green Building Council), Telangana State Technological Services and the State police department, the release added.