The opening ceremony of the United States consulate office at Paigah Palace in the city will be held on Friday. The American flag will be raised over the new office marking the ceremony. The US Ambassador to India, Mr David C. Mulford, will attend the programme. Consulate authorities said it is only a flag-raising ceremony to inform people that the office is getting ready to start operations. The consulate public affairs officer, Ms Juliet Wurr, said the office will start functioning in a phased manner from mid-December. The consulate will build its permanent campus at Gacchibowli, where the state government has allotted a piece of land. “It will take eight to nine years to have a new facility. It will be double in size,” consulate sources told this correspondent.-DC