Tirupati: Bhumi Puja for new building of TMC to be held on Aug 21

Tirupati: MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy disclosed that Bhumi Puja for the construction of the Rs 71 crore new building for Tirupati Municipal Corporation (TMC) office building will be performed on August 21. Speaking to the media here on Tuesday, the MLA said the construction of the new building was necessitated as the present Corporation office building which was constructed 47 years ago in 1975 is inadequate to growing office needs and keeping in view the requirements of the fast expanding pilgrim city.

Informing that the new building construction was taken up under `Smart City project,' he said as per the contract agreement the construction will be completed in one year, till then the municipal corporation office will function temporarily at the Old Maternity Hospital building at SVRR Government Hospital complex.

Disclosing the details of the new building, he said the five storey modern building will have a total of 14,807 sq mt plinth area as against the existing one which is only 2,889 sq.mt. It will be constructed with latest technology to provide all required facilities for the efficient functioning of the office and will be the best one among the municipal offices in the State. The Command and Control system will also be housed in the new building, he added. He appealed to the political parties and others not to oppose the Corporation taking over the Old Maternity Hospital building to locate its office temporarily in the hospital building in the interests of five lakh people of the city.

Reacting the protests staged by the political parties against the government handing over the hospital building to corporation, he said some parties and people were unnecessarily trying to create an issue ignoring the fact that the corporation taking the hospital building will in no away affect the patients as the hospital is already functioning in a sprawling new building at SVRR hospital complex and only a wing are or two still exist in the old building which he said can also be accommodated in the new building.

Meanwhile, the opposition parties including CPI and Telugu Yuvatha opposed the corporation taking over the old maternity hospital building. CPI activists led by party national secretary K Narayana staged a protest at the old maternity hospital building on Tuesday to press the corporation to shift its office to any TTD buildings readily available or to the present Collectorate also housed at the TTD building at Tiruchanur in which two floors remain vacant. Narayana felt that it is not desirable to locate corporation office even on a temporary basis in a hospital zone and opined that it would come in the way of the district level maternity hospital serving scores of poor women from the district and also other Rayalaseema districts. Telugu Yuvatha State general secretary A Ravi Naidu said in release here that they will intensify the stir to stop corporation shifting its office to old maternity hospital building. Congress leader P Naveen Kumar also opposed the corporation office

being located in old maternity

hospital.