Hyderabad, May 10 (IANS): Former police chief of undivided Andhra Pradesh, Dr B. Prasada Rao passed away in the US on Monday, his family sources said.

Rao complained of chest pain and wanted to be taken to hospital but by the time the ambulance reached, he breathed his last.

He was 66 and survived by wife Sowmini and son Vikas.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and his Telangana counterpart K. Chandrasekhar Rao condoled the death of Prasada Rao.

Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed grief over the demise of Prasada Rao and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved family members.

Chandrashekhar Rao also mourned the death of former DGP. He conveyed his condolences to members of the bereaved family.

Prasada Rao served as the police chief from October 2013 to May 2014. He was the last DGP of undivided Andhra Pradesh and had taken over when Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra were witnessing protests against the Centre's decision to carve out a separate Telangana state.

After bifurcation, he served as Principal Secretary, home, Government of Andhra Pradesh.

He had served as police commissioner of Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam and as superintendent of plice of Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Nalgonda districts.

Rao did his M.Sc. (Physics) from IIT (Madras) in 1977, and continued his interest in physics even after joining Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1979.

An expert in physics, he was awarded a PhD for his research on 'Wave-Particle Duality of Light' by Sri Krishnadevaraya University in 2014

After retirement, he worked as a visiting faculty of Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, JNTU, Kakinada and Hyderabad, Sri Krishnadevaraya University.

Hailing from Guntur district of coastal Andhra Pradesh, he had the reputation of an officer who goes strictly by the rule book.

He also authored a book 'Word power to mind power', a unique method of learning and memorising English vocabulary applying visualisation and contextualisation.