The main reason for Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao deciding to shift the Secretariat from its present location seems to be vaastu .
A stickler for vaastu , Mr. Rao had even toyed with the idea of not moving into the present Chief Minister’s camp office solely on this ground. Similarly, the main entrance of the Secretariat was originally designed at nairuti (south-west) which did not meet Mr. Rao’s astrological numbers.
The Saifabad Palace, as it was called when the Nizams constructed it, was also abandoned by the royal family.
It was the sixth Nizam Mir Mahboob Ali Khan’s wife who was said to have spotted a monitor lizard in the palace, now ‘G’ block in the Secretariat, which was supposed to be a bad omen.
Sources said that Mr. Rao also considered space constraint for parking of vehicles while taking the decision.
Moreover, he wanted an integrated complex for the Secretariat and offices of heads of departments, which are scattered around in Hyderabad.
The buildings should be ultra-modern unlike the present ones. It was with this vision that Mr. Rao zeroed in on 65-acre Chest Hospital at Erragadda for the new Secretariat.
The huge premises was also meant to meet his dream of an exclusive parade ground.
The officials got down to designing the sketch for the new Secretariat on Wednesday. They said it would have six or seven floors initially and would be completed within a year.
Asked about the purpose to which the present Secretariat would be put, one of them said it might be auctioned after ten years till which time it’s supposed to be the seat of power for Telangana and AP governments as per the bifurcation law.
