Rashtrapati Nilayam in Bolarum was decked up to receive President Pranab Mukherjee who will arrive in the city on the last southern sojourn of his term on Thursday.
Pranab Mukherjee has been quite regular in his annual southern sojourn to escape the harsh Delhi winter and spent more than a week at the second home of President the Rashtrapati Nilayam in Hyderabad.
During his stay in the city Mukherji will participate in several official and other programs including the annual day celebrations of the Moulana Azad National Urdu University on Monday next. He will also take time off to visit Bengaluru on Sunday to inaugurate a literary conference.
Apart from cleaning up the sprawling Rastrapati Nilayam and its surroundings and giving a face lift to the roads, the authorities have made elaborate security arrangements for the First Citizen of the country.
The white Bungalow with green surroundings which was later renamed as Rashtrapati Nilayam was specially built as the home of the English Resident by the then Nizam government. The place was chosen as Nizam’s army was stationed at Bolarum and was under the control of the English Resident as his first residence in Koti area was in a crowded area and was deemed unsafe.
later in 1948, when Hyderabad state was merged into Indian union the Bolarum Residency was taken over by the Indian Army and it was later converted it to Rashtrapati Nilayam for the annual soujourn.
While most of the Presidents followed the annual tradition, some of them including APJ Abdul Kalam KR Naryanan and Pratibha Patil were not so regular.