PESHAWAR, Feb 22: The NWFP Government has renamed the abandoned commissioner house in the provincial capital as ‘Frontier House’ and will now use it as state guest house.

Renovation of the British-era building cost the government more than Rs2 million while an amount of Rs3 million had already been spent about two years ago on this dilapidated building spread over an area of 28 kanals along the Mall, sources said.

A senior official said that the Frontier House would serve as VVIP guest house while guests of the chief minister from other provinces would also stay here.

“Sometimes chief ministers and federal ministers visit the provincial capital and we do not have proper accommodation for them. It is often very embarrassing to accommodate them in the officer mess,” he added.

He said the ‘old’ Frontier House located opposite the Governor House had been renamed as Chief Minister House and its served as personal residence of the CM.

Needless to say that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), during previous general election campaign, had promised to convert the Frontier House and the Governor House into educational institutions and to adopt austerity measures to reduce non-developmental expenditures.

The commissioner house had fallen vacant after abolition of erstwhile divisions on Aug 14, 2001. A portion of the building was handed over to the Nifaz-i-Shariat Council which is still under the use the secretary of the council.

Sources said that Shahi Mehmankhana was also at the disposal of the provincial government where VIP personalities used to stay during their official visits.

Moreover, the Federal Lodges are also available in the city for important functionaries.

“There was no need of such extravaganza as the province has been facing cash crunch, said an official, adding that the cost of the ongoing renovation might exceed Rs2 million.

Sources said that about two years back the government had planned to convert the commissioner house into the official residence of the chief secretary and an amount of Rs3 million was spent on its renovation. However the plan was dropped due to some unknown reasons.

They said that the chief minister had directed the concerned authorities to properly renovate and decorate the building for official guests.