Sonia, Priyanka on private visit to Shimla

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her daughter Priyanka Vadra and her grandchildren on Sunday reached the Himachal Pradesh capital on a three-day private visit, officials said.

Sonia Gandhi and her family visited Charabra where Priyanka Vadra's cottage is being constructed amid forests of pine and cedar, a government official said.

After inspecting the construction work for about an hour, the family left for Wildflower Hall, a luxury resort on the outskirts of Shimla.

"They spent the entire day at the resort," the official said.

The Gandhi family is expected to stay here till Tuesday and there is no engagement to meet any party functionary during the stay, the official added.

A two-storey five-room cottage, constructed earlier, was pulled down three years ago as Priyanka Vadra wanted the house to gel with the surroundings.

But the new structure, rising from the debris of the old one, gives the impression that another concrete structure sans wooden ceiling, close to The Retreat, the summer holiday resort of the Indian president, was in the making.

The new structure has been raised after re-strengthening the foundation by constructing retaining walls, said a builder, requesting anonymity.

The Vadras purchased a three-and-a-half bigha (one bigha is 0.4 hectare) agricultural plot, located at a height of more than 8,000 feet from US-based Satish Kumar Sood and Satinder Sood in 2007.

Later, they purchased additional land near the existing one, just half a km away from Wildflower Hall.

Priyanka Vadra, her children and mother Sonia Gandhi have been frequently visiting the cottage to inspect the construction work.