Naidu vacates Hyderabad office eight years before deadline

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has more or less vacated his Hyderabad Secretariat, eight years before the time allowed as per the AP Reorganization Act. He has effectively shifted his administration to the newly built temporary Secretariat at Velagapudi in the under construction Amaravati as five out of the total six blocks meant for the Scretariat have started functioning from 17 October.

Naidu got Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay the foundation stone for Amaravati city on 6 October 2015 and commenced construction of the temporary Secretariat from the first week of Janu- ary this year. Thanks to the Rs 2,500 crore funds sanctioned by the Centre, the construction of the temporary Secretariat has been finished within six months.

The temporary Secretariat has been constructed on a sprawling campus of 45 acres in the heart of Amaravati city, about 15 km from Vijayawada across the Krishna river. Located amidst cash rich agricultural crops like coconut, platinum and flower gardens, the temporary Secretariat has been built in the G-plus-1 style, with an outlay of Rs 350 crore, by two infrastructure giants, L&T and Shapoorji and Pallonji.

The six blocks put together have an area of six lakh sq feet, which matches the space oc-