Hope for empty tower
TS appoints consultant to use sports hostel
A decade after the 14storey government building at Gachibowli stadium was built, the Sports Authority of Telangana (SATS) has engaged a consultancy to sort out a plan on how to effectively utilise it.
The accommodation complex, 'Games Village', was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy for the 2007 World Military Games.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said in the Assembly, on Wednesday that the building was lying unused following which SATS has proposed to work on a plan to utilise the building in keeping with its grandeur and scope.
Reports had earlier emerged that the building would be given to a hotel group in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. But such statements continue to surface in the new state as well.
In 2015, law minister A. Indrakaran Reddy had stated in the Assembly that the building should be used to temporarily house the bifurcated High Court of Telangana state. However, the judges apparently did not respond positively.
Bureaucrats and ministers had previously announced that they would use it to house start-ups and as a cancer research centre. These proclamations never materialised.
Responding to these claims, officials from the government said, "Different stakeholder groups have toured the building several times in the past, but it did not meet their respective criteria."
The complex was used to its full capacity in 2016 during the 65th All India Police Athletic Championship hosted by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), after which it was used on and off for several events.
The building which was erected with a budget of `70 crore in 2007 was debt-ridden for a long time. However, it is now free of loans and can generate revenue, as per the government officials.
Each floor has about 36 rooms but interior work had been left incomplete from the eighth to the 14th floors. An official said, "These are minor issues. Following the report from construction consultancy, the minor work will be taken care of appropriately."
The report will be provided by the consultancy in next ten days after which the government will deliberate on the due course of action.