Govt. considering multiple options to put Rushikonda buildings to use

The Andhra Pradesh government is considering multiple options to utilise the lavish buildings constructed atop Rushikonda during the YSRCP term in a manner that would benefit the public, while also generating sustainable revenue for the Tourism Department, Ministers Payyavula Keshav, Kandula Durgesh and D.B.V. Swamy said on Tuesday.

The Ministers were speaking after the second meeting of the sub-committee constituted to examine the future use of the buildings that had been built by the previous dispensation, purportedly for use as official residence of then Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Tourism Special Chief Secretary Ajay Jain, Tourism MD and APTA CEO Amrapali Kata, and senior officials attended the meeting. The committee reviewed the public and stakeholder feedback gathered through the Tourism Department’s website.

Officials informed the Ministers that 1,517 members of the public and 44 stakeholders had shared their views. A majority of them had urged the government to quickly rectify, what they described as mistakes of the previous regime, and ensure the asset was put to public use. Suggestions included converting the “palace” into a hotel or resort, museum, art gallery, wellness centre, MICE facility, science planetarium, or even government offices.

The Ministers criticised the previous government for replacing revenue-generating resorts with a palace-like structure spread over nearly 20,000 square metres, resulting in a monthly maintenance burden of ₹25 lakh to ₹30 lakh. They said institutions such as Tata, IHCL and Atmosphere Core, along with some foreign firms, had offered proposals.

The sub-committee said another meeting would be held soon, after which two or three options would be placed before the Cabinet for a final decision, in consultation with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.