A spacious and state-of-art 'banquet hall', spread over an area of 14,320 square-feet, is being constructed in the Chief Minister House at a cost of Rs 51.718 million, Business Recorder learnt on Wednesday. It is expected that construction work will be completed by December 31, sources in the CM House said.
They said the new banquet hall was being built on the directives of Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, which would be the first major construction activity in 88 years after the completion of original building in 1920. The historical building of the CM House, which also served as Prime Minister House in the past, desperately needs a big banquet hall to cater to the needs of its habitants and official ceremonies, they said.
Keeping in view of needs of the house, the Sindh Chief Minister ordered construction of another banquet hall. According to them, construction works on the project has already been started and Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim performed its groundbreaking on August 1.
It may be mentioned here that around Rs 140.792 million has been allocated for expenditure of the CM House in the 2007-08 budget as compared to the last year's allocation of Rs 175.484 million, showing a decrease of around Rs 35 million in the allocation.