Former chief ministerof erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah will be shifted to ahouse near his official residence, 163 days after he was takeninto preventivecustody following abrogation of Article 370 provisions, officials said here onWednesday.

Omar, presently kept in detention at Hari Nivas, is likelyto be shifted on Thursday as the Jammu and Kashmir administration plans to usethe Hari Nivas to accommodate a ministerial delegation from the Centre visitingthe Valley soon, they said.

A team of Union ministers including Railway minister PiyushGoyal, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Minister of State GKishan Reddy arescheduled to travel soon to the Valley to educate the people about thedevelopmental activities that have taken place after the abrogation of thestate''s special status and its division into two union territories.

The house where Omar will be shifted is very near to hisofficial residence and is being readied as he is a Special Services Group (SSG)protectee, the officials said.

Along with his father Farooq Abdullah and another formerchief minister Mehbooba Mufti, Omar was among hundreds of political, socialactivists, lawyers and businessmen detained after the centre abrogated Article370 on August 5 and divided Jammu and Kashmir state into two union territories-- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Omar, Mehbooba and other politicians were detained undersection 107 of Code of Criminal Procedure which allows authorities and anexecutive magistrate to put any person under preventive custody for a period ofsix months if he receives information that the person is likely to commit abreach of the peace or disturb the public tranquillity. Farooq Abdullah is theonly mainstream politician against whom the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA)was slapped on September 17 for a period of three months, which was renewed onDecember 16 last year.