Modi's one year: Maharashtra Raj Bhavan staff to get flats (Lead correcting figure in last para)

The first anniversary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi assuming office on next Tuesday will be memorable for 63 Raj Bhavan employees and their families.

On that day, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will give them keys to their swanky flats in a 14-storeyed high-rise near Raj Bhavan premises, overlooking the Arabian Sea shore, an official said here on Friday.

Fadnavis will inaugurate the newly-constructed building for the staffers at a function to be presided over by Governor C.V. Rao.

The building has 63 flats, of them 43 one-bedroom-hall-kitchen (BHK) flats each of 360 square feet for Group D employees like gardners, sweepers, kitchen and support staff.

The other 20 two-BHK flats of 490 square feet on the top four floors will be given to Group C employees like office and clerical staff.

Until now, a majority of them were living in cramped 100-square-foot chawls (tenements) with a common toilet and bathroom on each floor.

In 2004, the then governor Mohammed Fazal, since expired, asked the then chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to raze the dilapidated chawls and build a single building to provide decent housing for the Raj Bhavan staffers.

In July that year, Fazal laid the foundation stone of the first wing of the proposed tower and it was completed in 2011.

On May 10, 2011, the then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and governor K. Sankaranarayanan inaugurated the A Wing with 68 one-BHK flats of 360 square feet each.

With the completion of the B Wing, the two wings - built at a total cost of Rs.19.15 crore - accommodate 131 employees.