Greater Hyderabad - Information About Greater Hyderabad Development, Hyderabad News, Topics, Yellowpages, Life Style - US Consulate in Hyderabad - Its just matter of Guchibowli or Gopanpally? greater hyderabad

The government is all set to develop Gopanapally near Gachibowli as a diplomatic corridor with US officials on Tuesday deciding to set up its permanent consulate there.

After the US consulate is set up, other consulates will have similar facilities in the city. All these consulates would come up in Gopanapally," a senior official said. It is expected that Australian and Japanese consulates would follow the US facility.

State government officials had shown two sites at Gopanapally to the US officials for setting up of the consulate. While one is adjacent to Microsoft's India Development Centre, the other one is near the new Wipro facility, about 5 kms from the Microsoft facility.

The US officials, according to official sources, will finalise on one of these locations in the next four to eight weeks and sign an MoU with the government to begin civil works for the building. The two properties suggested is spread across 10 acres each. The permanent consulate is expected to be functional in another 6-8 years.

An interim consulate, meanwhile, will come up at Paigah Palace in Begumpet and is expected to be functional from 2008. "Negotiations with the government are on and the temporary consulate in Hyderabad will be operational from 2008. The temporary facility in a good location will be enormously helpful in moving forward," Henrietta H Fore, under secretary of state for management, said.

No fixed budget for the Hyderabad consulate has been assigned as of now. "I wouldn't say it is open-ended, but there is no fixed budgetary so far," said David T Hopper, consul general, Chennai consulate told TOI. The announcement of the consulate plans was made by US president George W Bush during his Hyderabad visit in March last year.

The setting up of the US consulate together with the country's open border initiatives is expected to herald a new era in the B2B relations among the two countries.