Even if Rushikonda palace is kept idle, it is costing a bomb!

Visakhapatnam: The opulent palace built by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government has now turned into a burdensome affair for the alliance government.

After the formation of the alliance government in Andhra Pradesh, little did it expect that replacing an income-generating tourism project with an undefined palatial bungalow would result in costing a bomb even if it is kept idle.

At a time when the authorities concerned are contemplating ways to define the purpose of the Rs 500 crore-palace, the penalty imposed for environmental violation further topped up the building cost by another Rs 200 crore. “If the amount spent on Jagan’s palace was invested in the TIDCO houses, the poor would have now owned a house across the state,” reiterated HRD Minister Nara Lokesh during his recent visit to Visakhapatnam.

Even the power consumed by the seven building blocks is costing lakhs per month. As considered earlier, if the palace has to be converted into a revenue-generating resource, the government cannot go ahead with the proposal without infusing more funds into it.

With Deputy Chief Minister K Pawan Kalyan paying a visit to the bungalow a week back, the scope for making a decision soon on utilising the palace as an income-generating infrastructure appears to be high.

Whether the palace will be converted into a museum or a tourist spot or blocks of IT offices or a convention centre needs to be seen.

In the garb of readying a tourism project matching up with international standards, the YSRCP government imposed stringent restrictions during its tenure wherein the Opposition leaders could not go anywhere close to the building premises.

However, in the month of June, Bheemunipatnam MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao unveiled the mystery behind the Rushikonda palace by unlocking its gates for the public. Even as the jaw-dropping interiors of the lavish palace did impress visitors who came in droves, it has now become a big task for the government to utilise the discreetly-built palace by the previous government for a meaningful purpose.