High Court of Telangana gives approval for construction of new secretariat

In a major victory for the State government, a two-judge PIL panel of the Telangana High Court on Monday upheld the direction of the government to proceed with the construction of a new secretariat by demolishing the existing structures.

The State Secretariat, abutting Hussain Sagar, comprises 10 blocks and is spread over 25.5 acres. The State government is keen on constructing a new state-of-the-art secretariat complex that will bring all scattered departments under one roof and also provide modern amenities like connectivity to the administrative staff and ministers to effectively discharge their duties. The government also wants to build an iconic structure to reflect the heritage of Telangana, and accordingly, the State Cabinet took a decision to take up construction of the new secretariat on June 19, 2019.

However in 2016, Congress leader



T Jeevan Reddy, advocate T Rajinikanth Reddy and an NGO, Forum for Good Governance, filed separate petitions seeking a stay on shifting of Secretariat to other buildings and demolition of the existing structures to build the new secretariat at Erragadda. In 2019, Congress MP A Revanth Reddy, Prof PL Vishweshwar Rao, vice president of TJS also filed PILs.

The government through the Advocate General submitted to the High Court that construction of a new secretariat was the State’s prerogative and will submit plans accordingly. The government planned to spend Rs 300 crore to Rs 400 crore on the new complex which is expected to have a total area of over 4.45 lakh square feet. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao laid the foundation stone for the new secretariat on June 27, 2019. Subsequently, all offices from the old Secretariat were relocated to BRKR Bhavan and other government buildings in the city.