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Lease Agreement Signed With US Officials For “Paigah Palace”
Posted by Pradeep Sadanapalli | July 15, 2007 | 342 views
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Loading ...Formalising what has been public for the last one year, the state government on Tuesday signed a lease agreement with the United States for establishment of an American Consulate in Hyderabad. This will be the fourth US consulate in the country.
Addressing the media on the occasion, US ambassador to India David C Mulford said that the consulate will start functioning by the end of 2008 from Paigah Palace, a heritage building of the Nizam period and would do so for the next three years.
The state government will soon hand over about 12 acres of land near Gachibowli for a permanent consulate building. The new building is slated to be ready by 2011. The US government has sanctioned $7.6 million to be spent on renovation work which includes high security arrangements. Mulford said that Hyderabad was chosen as for the conuslate as US officials felt that “it was a well managed city, a city that works and a city which had a very broad and diverse economic base”.
He said that another reason for choosing Hyderabad was for its “strategic importance and impressive mix of achievements in varied fields”. However, the use of the word strategic importance raised eyebrows among the officials present there.
Mulford when asked to explain why US found Hyderabad to be a strategic place said, “we have a huge demand for Visas from Andhra Pradesh. We asked ourselves questions like the community we are addressing. Hyderabad has a long history, a huge bio-tech and IT community and a city that works”.
Chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy expressed happiness that the promise made by US president George W Bush during his visit to Hyderabad 15 months back had become a reality.
He said the association between the state and US was a long one. Every fourth Indian in US is from AP. He said so far only people from India used to go to the US but now a reverse traffic has begun.
Reddy said the consulate would help all those who want to go to the US. Assuring Mulford of all possible help from the government to set up the consulate, he expressed hope that it would provide smooth and easy passage to professionals and technocrats who wish to travel to the US.
SOURCES:
Times Of India
Topics: Immigration, Information Technology, Govt In Action |
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