What’s unique about Rashtrapati Nilayam?

The out-of-bounds and the thoroughfare to Rashtrapati Nilayam in Bolaram, has been beefed up with high security, in view of the President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Hyderabad from 19-31 December, for a winter sojourn. Annual maintenance works and facelift of the buildings and others works have been completed within the time schedule.

PK Mohanty, chief secretary, had convened a high level meeting on Thursday with civic, military and police authorities to strengthen the security arrangements to prevent processions and rallies of any sort near the boundary of the Rashtrapati Nilayam. During his stay, he is expected to visit Puttaparthi, Chennai, Allahabad and Mumbai. Governor ESL Narasimhan will host a dinner on December 24 in honour of the President.

The Rashtrapati Nilayam would be opened for general public from January 1, 2014, for 7 days. This is one of the President’s people-friendly initiatives taken up by former President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil. Large number of visitors, mostly school children, will be thronging this heritage palace and herbal garden, rose gardens and other historic monuments studded with lush green lawns.

The herbal garden has 116 species of medicinal and aromatic plants. The palace was opened to the public to bring in awareness about India’s rich heritage and diversity and also about medicinal values of various plants that grow widely in the surroundings. Most of the herbs are homemade remedies for many diseases. The premises has a number of environment-friendly systems in place such as solar lights, drip irrigation system and percolation pond for efficient and judicious use of natural resources. A fruit garden has also been developed on an area of about 35 acres of land.

The heritage palace was constructed by Nizam Nazir-ud-Dowla in 1860 when Sir Salar Jung was the Prime Minister. Bolaram was one of the military cantonments of the Nizam Government and the magnificent palace used to be the residence of chief military officer. Later, it was occupied by British Viceroys. After independence, it came under the control of Hyderabad Nizams. After the merger of Hyderabad State with the Union of India in 1950, the government took over the building and converted it into a resort for the President and christened it as Rashtrapati Nilayam.

The magnificent retreat has a built up area of 2500 sq m, centrally located in a compound of around 90 acres. The main building comprises of three wings-president wing, family wing and ADC wing.

The three wings have 20 rooms which include, a cinema hall, state dining hall, morning room and ADC dining room. All the rooms are of single-storeyed construction with Madras style roof at a height of 20 to 25 feet, surrounded by-low level common veranda.

Most interesting feature of the Rashtrapathi Nilayam is the 50-metre long ventilated tunnel that links the state kitchen to the state dining hall. The tunnel was built for the safety of the Nizam, as he was worried that his food could be poisoned by his enemies. The premises also contains a 150-year old well, which is still used for irrigating the vast lawns of the Nilayam.

Another historical structure that the visitors should not miss is the replica of flag post. The flag post was originally located in the residential complex. The flag post-cum-weather watch instrument, located behind the complex on the lawns on the north-west was erected in 1867. It was here Prince Azam Jah handed over the Hyderabad State to Union of India. However, only a replica is exhibited in the Cinema Hall in the residential complex. The intention of locating Rashtrapati Nilayam at Secunderabad was to assess and understand various problems of the people who are located far away from the capital city of India, New Delhi.