THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A seven-storey building is coming up between the two annex buildings of the Secretariat, which is the administrative centre. The third annex is on 36.62 cents of private land between Annex 1 and 2 buildings. This land was acquired by the revenue department in October 2022 for Rs 20 crore from a person settled in the United States.

The 1st Annex was constructed in 1995 to accommodate space constraints in the Secretariat Main Building. The 2nd annex in 2016. In between there were two houses. The government had approached the house owner to buy this land when it was decided to build the first annex. The price fixed by the government was 15 crores. However, they were not ready to sell. The owners were persuaded that the land should be acquired as it was situated between strategic buildings of the government, but they refused to budge and approached the court in 2005. After 17 years of litigation, the case was settled in October 2022. This was after the court directed to consider increasing the compensation. With this, both sides reached an agreement for 20 crores. The government paid the full amount in October 2022. The revenue department acquired the land in November. The house will be demolished.

Third Annex

Five ministerial offices will be arranged on floors three to seven of the building. The lower two floors are for parking. The plan and estimate of the building will be prepared by the Public Works Department. Construction will start as soon as possible. Currently, there is a police guard there. Due to the non-availability of space in the annex, Secretariat staff has been given temporary permission to park vehicles here.

Annex 1: Ministers MB Rajesh and KB Ganesh Kumar

Annex 2: Ministers R. Bindu, V. Shivankutty, P. A. Mohammed Riyas, Chinchu Rani, P. Prasad