Tamil Nadu's Long Search for a New Seat of Government: A Story of Power, Continuity and Political Ownership

State secretariats in India are more than office complexes. They are symbols of power, continuity and political ownership. Governments build new seats of power when existing buildings become inadequate, new capitals are created or political leadership seeks to redefine the geography of governance. Tamil Nadu’s latest proposal at Foreshore Estate is part of this larger story. Tamil Nadu’s search for a new Secretariat has outlived governments, political eras and even a completed building since the process began in the early 1980s. In the first decade of this century, the government constructed a new Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex at Omandurar Government Estate. It was used for about a year before the Assembly and Secretariat were shifted back to Fort St. George following a change of government. The State has now once again considered building a brand-new Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex at Foreshore Estate in Chennai. Further details will be available when the detailed project report is submitted to the government. The search for a new seat of government dates back to the 1980s, when the MGR government explored the possibility of constructing a new Legislature building. The effort gained renewed momentum in the early 2000s under J Jayalalithaa and was subsequently pursued by M Karunanidhi, with both leaders proposing an integrated Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex. Between 2002 and 2004, the Jayalalithaa government proposed an administrative city spread over 2,000 acres near Mamallapuram. The proposal was later narrowed to the Thiruvidanthai/Thaiyur area, where a feasibility exercise was undertaken with the Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board. Since the administrative city was conceived as a long-term project that could take more than 10 years to materialise, her government also explored building a new Secretariat within Chennai. Sites considered included the Lady Willingdon College premises, Queen Mary’s College and part of the Anna University campus at Kotturpuram. The proposal involving Queen Mary’s College met with strong opposition from political parties. Jayalalithaa, accompanied by her close aide V K Sasikala, performed the Bhoomi Puja for the Kotturpuram project, but that proposal also failed to materialise. The major breakthrough came during Karunanidhi’s tenure, when the Omandurar Estate complex was completed in 2010. The subsequent return to Fort St George after the change of government in 2011 marked the most dramatic reversal in the State’s long search for a new seat of government. The Omandurar complex was subsequently converted into the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital.