The 33rd district of Tamil Nadu will have its collectorate on the Government Hospital campus near the new bus-stand on Madurai Road as Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami laid the foundation stone for the campus on Friday from Chennai through video-conferencing.
The six-storey building with a plinth area of 28,995 square meters will be constructed at a cost of ₹119 crore on 11.11 acres of land on the government hospital within 18 months.
The edifice will house departments of revenue, small savings, district treasury, ‘mahalir thittam’, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, survey, disaster management, District Employment Office, District Rural Development Agency, backward class welfare, cooperation, registration, agriculture, animal husbandry, public health, forest, offices of Chief Educational Officer, District Educational Officer, Tamil development, Adi Dravida welfare etc.
While the District Police Office will also come up on this premise, bungalows of the Collector, Superintendent of Police, Armed Reserve Police camp etc. will be built in some other place to be identified later.
Ministers R. B. Udhayakumar, V. M. Rajalakshmi, Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam, Secretary of Disaster Management Atulya Misra, Commissioner for Revenue Administration K. Phanindra Reddy and others participated remotely.
In the simple ‘bhumi puja’ held here, Collector G. S. Sameeran, Superintendent of Police Suguna Singh, MLAs Selvamohandas Pandian of Tenkasi and A. Manoharan of Vasudevanallur Assembly segments participated.
After the district was bifurcated from the sprawling Tirunelveli district on November 22 last year, rumours were doing rounds that the Collectorate complex would come-up on a remote wetland meant for the seed farm of Department of Agriculture near Aayiraperi village on the Tenkasi – Old Courtallam Road. Citing inaccessibility, people from various walks of life including the public, traders and political parties submitted petitions against the move, which was even challenged in the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, which advised the government to identify an easily accessible land for the Collectorate.
While Alangulam MLA Poongothai Aladi Aruna of DMK accused that she and Kadayanallur MLA Mohamed Abubucker of Indian Union Muslim League were not formally invited for the foundation stone laying ceremony, officials could not be reached for their comments.
