In addition, the tiled floors, walls and doors are being polished and the kitchen and bathrooms fittings replaced at a cost of Rs 8 lakh. “We will complete construction, repair and maintenance works in time,” says Executive Engineer (Building) Ghanshyam Agrawal.

Till August 29, when Koda vacated the CM’s bungalow, the Cabinet Secretariat and Building Construction Department had spent about Rs 4.88 crore on the the bungalow which housed the South Chotanagpur Divisional Commissioner in undivided Bihar. When Koda became CM on September 18, 2006, he occupied the house, retaining his official bungalow in Deen Dayal Nagar. When he quit last month, Koda vacated the CM’s bungalow and returned to his old bungalow.

Like his predecessor, Soren is going to retain his Morahabad bungalow. In fact, Soren had all along been resisting attempts by the state government officials to vacate him from the bungalow. Though Soren was not available for comment, JMM secretary Madan Naik said he was not aware of his party chief’s position regarding the old bungalow. “In such matters, he takes the decision and nobody can dispute it,” explains Madan. Secretary (Building) Amrendra Pratap Singh too has no clue about what the CM planned to do with his old house.

Meanwhile, the boundary walls of Morahabadi bungalow were being fitted with barbed wires. A Soren aide, said this is necessary as “Guruji will be staying in both houses”.