CM, Dy. CM lay stone for new Collectorate building

Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam laid the foundation stone for the construction of a new office building on the Collectorate premises here on Monday.

Speaking at the function, Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao said that the building would come up on 4.43 acres of land with a built-up area of 10,904 square metres. Official sources said that the four storeyed building would accommodate 26 offices, including the Collector’s office, District Supply Office, District Treasury, Department of Information and Public Relations, and District Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Office.

The present stone-masonry building was built in 1916. Madurai Collectorate, however, is in existence since 1790. Though a proposal to construct a new building to move a majority of the offices from the heritage building was under discussion for long, the Tamil Nadu government recently announced in the Legislative Assembly under Rule 110 that a new building on the same campus would be constructed at a cost of ₹ 26.22 crore.

The function was brief with no speech by the Chief Minister. Though a large number of beneficiaries from various departments were brought, he distributed the welfare measures to a couple of them and left the venue. He later attended the marriage function in a party functionary’s family before leaving for Salem by car.