The State government has started demolition of the older Secretariat buildings on Tuesday. Chief Minister KCR is learnt to have approved the planning for the new Secretariat complex and had given his permission on Monday to take up the demolition works of the old buildings. All vehicles, including media, were prohibited from getting anywhere close to the Secretariat complex.
Official sources stated that the demolition works were started from the Samata Block which housed the Chief Minister’s Officer earlier, followed by other dilapidated buildings on the premises. The police agencies have sealed off all the roads leading to the State Secretariat and enforced traffic curbs for about a kilometer radius from the work site. Barriers have been built at Khairatabad, Ravindra Bharati, Himayatnagar, Tank Bund and other crossroads leading to the Secretariat.
“It may take less than a two-day period for all the buildings to be demolished. A significant number of people and equipment are currently in the process of demolition. Entire process is mechanical. There is no controlled implosion,” he said.
The roads would not be opened till the last building is razed and debris cleared, he added.
No vehicular movement is allowed on the Tank Bund Road, NTR Marg, or the Necklace Road. While the Secretariat complex is located on NTR marg, the three roads that circumvent the Hussainsagar lake are extremely important to commute between Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
Cars and Vehicles arriving from Secunderabad were halted near entry to the Tank Bund Road and rerouted to lower Tank Bund road.
Blockages were seen near Ambedkar Circle, Liberty Circle, and Basheerbagh circle stopping vehicles or the public from reaching Tank Bund road. Similar barriers have been built near Ravindra Bharathi as well as Lakdi-ka-pul intersections.
The road from Khairatabad Basti which led to the back of the Secretariat was also stopped and police parties manned the checkpoints. The Khairatabad flyover leading to NTR Marg too was closed.
Ten buildings located in a 25-acre campus, the oldest of which was built in 1882 by the Nizam government, have been left in July last after the government has decided to go ahead with the building of a new one. While several important offices among them that of the Chief Secretary and the ministers were moved to nearby BRKR Bhavan, several other departments currently function from buildings located across the city.
The Telangana High Court refused to interfere with the State Cabinet’s decision to demolish the old Secretariat buildings and cleared all the petitions filed against the Cabinet decision during last week. Shortly thereafter, the authorities shifted all the computer servers and other equipment along with abandoned vehicles in the old Secretariat.