US Consulate ends lease with Paigah Palace, its first Hyderabad home

HYDERABAD: In perhaps the final formality ending its association with the old edifice, the US Consulate in Hyderabad has announced the formal ending of its lease with Paigah Palace. The US Consulate operated from this heritage building for 15-long years before shifting to its new, swanky facility in March this year.

Jennifer Larson, US Consul General, Hyderabad, tweeted to this effect on Monday and announced the formal end of its lease with Paigah Palace. The US Consul General also profusely thanked the Telangana Government for allocating the heritage building for the consulate.

The highest US consular official in Hyderabad also tagged pictures of her signing the lease termination agreement with Arvind Kumar, Special Chief Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Telangana.

“Today we officially ended our lease of Paigah Palace. We’re grateful to the Gov’t of Telangana for making this amazing building available to us since 2007. Proud to share a small part of Paigah Palace’s history & we appreciate our friends in Telangana for making it possible,” Jennifer Larson said in the tweet.

The new state-of-the-art US Consulate facility was built in Nanakramguda of Hyderabad at an estimated cost of $300 million over a 12.2-acre land. The sprawling ultra-modern premises is considered to be the biggest US consulate office in South Asia. The new office features 54 visa processing windows, covered walkways, a large waiting hall and an adequate number of desks for the benefit of the applicants.