CHENNAI: Shattering the dream project of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, the Tamil Nadu government today decided to convert the Rs 1,200 crore new assembly-cum-secretariat complex into a multi-super-speciality hospital and a new medical college.
Making a suo-motu statement in the Assembly, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said the government will utilise a section of the complex for setting up the hospital on the pattern of prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) at Delhi, to provide medicare services to the people, particularly the poor.
The hospital will be established in Block A of the complex, Jayalalithaa said announcing a dramatic overturning of a major project of the previous DMK government, which was considered as being close to Karunanidhi's heart.
The Chief Minister said that a new government medical college will also come up at Block B.
She said the new complex could not be put to use as it was not enough to accommodate 36 departments and "not fit for official use."
Soon after coming to power, the AIADMK supremo did not visit the complex and further ordered to stop its construction.
Jayalithaa, who had criticised the project as a "wasteful expenditure" and described the structure as a "circus tent", for lack of aesthetic appeal, had announced a probe into the alleged irregularities in the construction.
The chief minister continued to function from Fort St George, which was the seat of power before the new complex came up, asserting that her move was not prompted by political consideration but determined by administrative reasons.
The new assembly complex was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on March 13, last year, much before the construction of the building was fully completed.