Southern States
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Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad
New main gate to Secretariat opened
By M. Malleswara Rao
HYDERABAD, DEC. 5. To the staff and the visitors alike, the Secretariat will be a new experience hereafter.
The bell-mouth mainway, constructed on north-east as if line with vaastu prescriptions, was thrown open to the public this morning while the Government unveiled a blueprint for giving further facelift to the premises which may go well with the betterments of the administration planned, including e-governance.
Entry into the premises will not be as easy as is now to visitors. They find the mainway sprawling and refreshing with vast space around and with a water body like Hussainsagar and NTR Gardens close by, but entry has been restricted.
A security-cum-reception complex has been constructed at the mainway in Satavahana style of architecture, 60 ft long and 40 ft wide, with ramparts on the top and with splay gates on either side. In the light of the changed security scenario, a state-of-the-art electronic gadget like scanner which alerts the security staff, ringing the bell and showing the visitor on TV screen inside, is being contemplated in addition to the conventional door-frame metal detectors, according to the Secretaries for Political and Roads and Buildings, Mr. Anil Kumar Kutty, and Mrs. Janaki Kondapi who were the first to step in. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, inspected the facility on way to his office.
The mainway leads one to the rear of ``J'' block before branching off into two roads, one going to the Chief Minister's office and the other to a route through which one can reach any of the 12 blocks. With this, the main inlet and outlet on the south facing the Birla temple hill are marked for closure.
However, the Chief Minister will continue to use this inlet only for ``security and other reasons,'' explains a Secretariat official. At any given point of time, there will be 25-30 policemen guarding the premises, most of them armed. Various aspects of security were discussed at a high-level meeting participated by the two secretaries, apart from Mr. C. N. Gopinatha Reddy, IGP, Special Protection. ``We take no chances,'' says Mr. C. Yesuratnam, DSP, an officer incharge of security.
With the lung space available in between blocks already being covered with greenery under the Clean and Green programme, the premises is a beautiful landscape to look at but the 6,000-odd employees are finding the blocks ``congested'' due to lack of work space. To avoid this problem, two new buildings have been planned under the blueprint replacing the existing ``D'' and ``H'' blocks. Between the two the one coming in place of ``D'' block under L&T Company, will be most modern.
The four-floor edifice will provide 1.5 lakh sq ft space to 16 departments, with each floor having two mini-conference halls and one lunch room. It will be a ``work-station'' building with computer and Internet access to visiting district Collectors/officials. Transparent partitions and modular furniture being provided will enable Minister/secretary to have an overview of the goings-on in the office. The main conference hall purposed for press interactions by the Chief Minister will be on the ground floor and it will accommodate 150 persons at a time.
This will also be the first block using natural light to the full extent as energy-saving measure. The other attractions provided in the complex include the Publicity Cell, the nerve cetnre of the Secretariat press, gym, indoor games complex and health club which the staff can access after office hours. Space has been left out for the mosque which suffered a partial damage during the recent demolition.
The second construction being taken up is the one replacing the ``H'' block which is dungeon-like. In contrast to the multi-storey building planned earlier, the ``H'' block whose cost has been estimated at around Rs. 2.4 crores, now will have only one floor offering 40,000 sq ft of plinth area.
As a new feature, an underground parking lot is being constructed over 1.5 acres of land opposite NTR Gardens.
The entire Secretariat system is to be monitored by a control station to be located in the ``D'' block manned by officials round the clock.
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