CHENNAI: After considering various options, the State government has formally announced that the new Secretariat and Legislative Assembly complex, with a built-up area of 20 lakh sq ft, will come up at a 25.55-acre land in ‘Mylapore town’.
The government order in this regard did not specify the exact location where the Rs 1,200-crore structure would come up.
According to the GO issued by Public Department Secretary E Sundaravalli, the government would fulfil Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s announcement in the Assembly to construct a new Secretariat and Assembly complex with 20 lakh sq ft of built-up area at a cost of Rs 1,200 crore.
“The government has identified 25.55 acres belonging to four departments Tamil Nadu Housing Board (22.89 acres), Greater Chennai Corporation (0.93 acre) and the Revenue Department (1.73 acres). The government has proposed to accord in-principle approval for the construction of a new Secretariat and Assembly building complex,” Sundaravalli said.
The order also directed the Public Works Department to submit a detailed project report (DPR), along with estimates, within three months.
The government has also constituted three committees to select the architectural firm and finalise the preliminary and final-stage drawings and designs for the new Secretariat and Assembly complex.
After reports said that the sprawling structure would come up at Pattinapakkam, a section of fishermen has raised objections stating that it would affect the livelihood of scores of people who have been living in the area much before Madras became a town, much less a capital city.
Vijay is the third chief minister to make an attempt to construct a new Secretariat and Assembly complex. While AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa was forced to give up her plans to demolish the Queen Mary's College to build the structure, DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi succeeded in constructing the building, only for it to be converted into what is now the Omandurar Multi Super Speciality Hospital.