Rashtrapati Nilayam in Hyderabad thrown open to public until January 15

Situated in Bolarum, the bungalow initially constructed within the 1850s by Mir Farqunda Ali Khan Nazir-ud-Daulah, the fourth Nizam of Hyderabad, served because the nation home of the British Residents earlier than Indian independence. “Earlier than it turned the second lodge of British Officer, it was the residence of the Chief Army Officer of the Bolarum cantonment arrange in the course of the third Nizam Sikandar Jah’s time. When the British later bought into an settlement with the Nizam and their navy institution got here up round Secunderabad, this property turned the second residence of the British Resident along with the Koti Residency,” says Professor Salma Ahmed Farooqui of H Okay Sherwani Centre for Deccan Research at Maulana Azad Nationwide Urdu College.

Sharing one other fascinating facet concerning the Rashtrapati Nilayam within the nation’s historical past, Prof Farooqui provides that KM Munshi, who was the Authorities of India’s agent-general in Hyderabad in 1948, had briefly stayed on the constructing. “Simply earlier than 1948, telegrams have been exchanged between Lord Mountbatten (the final Viceroy and the primary Governor-Basic of India) and the seventh Nizam (Mir Osman Ali Khan) the place the previous wished KM Munshi to occupy the Bolarum Residency. Munshi’s function was to evaluate the bottom state of affairs in Hyderabad and share inputs with the then house minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. After Hyderabad was merged with the Indian union, the Secunderabad cantonment was handed over to the Indian Military,” she notes.

The only-storeyed construction has 16 rooms, together with a darbar corridor, a eating corridor, a cinema corridor, a morning room and many others, in line with the Directorate Basic Defence Estates (DGDE) web site. Aside from the three wings, together with the President’s wing, an fascinating characteristic of the constructing is a 50-metre-long underground tunnel connecting the kitchen and the eating corridor, which guests are allowed to entry not like the interiors of the principle constructing.

It has been a convention for the Presidents of India to spend per week or two on the Rashtrapati Nilayam in December yearly. For over a decade now, the campus is being thrown open to the general public quickly after the President’s departure to Delhi. In the previous couple of years, authorities have developed a number of gardens, together with landscapes with medicinal and fragrant vegetation, flower gardens, and orchards of mango, pomegranate, amla, sapota, guava and many others. As a part of her southern sojourn, President Droupadi Murmu arrived in Hyderabad on December 26 and returned on December 30.

Throughout her keep, President Murmu visited the temple at Srisailam and Bhadrachalam concerning temple growth initiatives beneath the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Non secular Augmentation Drive’ (PRASAD) scheme of the Union Ministry of Tourism. She additionally visited Ramappa temple, which was final 12 months inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Web site, and laid the inspiration stones for the event of tourism infrastructure at Ramappa Temple and the restoration of Kameshwaralaya Temple.

Apart from addressing the officer trainees of the 74th batch of IPS at SVP Nationwide Police Academy, the President additionally visited and addressed the scholars of Keshav Memorial Academic Society, and inaugurated the Huge Plate Mill of Mishra Dhatu Nigam Restricted (MIDHANI) in Hyderabad. She additionally took half within the Sammakka Saralamma Janjati Pujari Sammelan, organised by the Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad–Telangana. Amongst a number of different official programmes, the President hosted ‘veer naris’ (widows of Military males) and different dignitaries over lunch at Rashtrapati Nilayam, earlier than returning to Delhi.