A new proposal to shift the seat of government in Chennai from Fort St George, the 17th century fortress built by the British East India Company, which was later transformed into the political headquarters of the Madras Presidency and Tamil Nadu, has run into an early storm.
Soon after coming to power, chief minister C. Joseph Vijay took the stand that the present secretariat cannot be expanded or modernised within the heritage constraints of Fort St George, a sizeable portion of which is controlled by the Union defence ministry and another portion by the Archaeological Survey of India.
The Joseph Vijay government has proposed a new Assembly and secretariat complex in Foreshore Estate at the edge of the city’s famous Marina Beach. The proposed new complex will be spread over 25.55 acres, with 20 lakh sq. ft of built-up space, and cost an estimated Rs 1,200 crore.
The plan, announced in the state Assembly by Vijay on 3 September, is controversial because the proposed new site raises questions of ecology and livelihoods. At the centre of the row is the question: must the new secretariat come up at this very location by the sea, threatening a highly fragile marine environment and the livelihoods of the fishing communities that live nearby?
Fort St George, founded in 1639, was the nucleus around which colonial Madras grew. After Independence, it became the home of the legislature and government of Tamil Nadu. The Madras Legislative Council began meeting there in 1921, and for decades the Assembly chamber became the setting for some of the most consequential political changes in the state.
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