Pawan Kalyan, the president of the Jana Sena Party and the deputy chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, has come up with a fresh proposal for the contentious palace complex on Rushikonda Hill in Visakhapatnam. After looking at the buildings on Friday, he advised turning them into a MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) destination or a place for destination weddings.
The previous YSR Congress Party government developed the facility, which is said to have cost the state around ₹500 crore. It has been a source of disagreement because of its high cost, claims of environmental damage, and the fact that it was not open to the public. Pawan Kalyan saw that the structures were in bad shape when he met with ministers Nadendla Manohar and Kandula Durgesh. The plaster was peeling and there were leaks in the walls. He said that just four of the seven planned blocks were finished, but the cost had gone up from an initial estimate of ₹164 crore to ₹453 crore.
Kalyan said that the last government spent a lot of money on luxury items without making sure that the project would be financially viable. He said that the former tourist resort on the site made ₹7 crore a year, but the new complex now has an electrical cost of ₹1.5 crore a year and doesn’t make any money.
He stated that the administration would look over the MICE idea and send suggestions to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The goal is to make a definitive choice before the assembly meets for the winter.
The deputy chief minister said that the building work had to deal with legal problems. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Supreme Court have been looking into the case. The Supreme Court had already said that building should only happen on the sites of the old Haritha hotels that were torn down. Pawan Kalyan stressed the importance of finding a balance between restoring the environment and recovering financially. He also claimed that the government would make a smart, revenue-focused choice about the future of the complex.