Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

MoU on dream projects with Malaysia

By Our Special Correspondent

The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, and the Malaysian Minister, S. Samy Vellu, exchanging an MoU signed at the Secretariat in Chennai on Tuesday.

Chennai Jan. 14. The Malaysian Government will prepare detailed proposals "within three months" for two dream projects, which could change the face of Chennai: an administrative hub at Thiruvidanthai near here and beautification of the Marina beach with shoreline corporate complexes at a cost of Rs. 1,000 crores.

As the first step towards conceptualising the mega projects, the Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia inked a memorandum of understanding with the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority to prepare feasibility reports.

Later, the Malaysian Minister for Works, S. Samy Vellu, said, "It is only the baby stage" of the projects and if the State Government gave the nod , the new administrative city on a sprawling 5,000-acre at Thiruvadanthai and Thaiyur would come up in 15 years and the Marina beautification would be completed in six years.

The administrative city would comprise an administrative centre and would house the Assembly, the Secretariat, and all government offices.

At Thaiyur, on the Old Mahabalipuram Road, complexes for about 65,000 houses for officials and MLAs would be built.

The residential area and the administrative city, to be "uniquely designed", reflecting Tamil architecture, would be interlinked. As for the beautification of the Marina, the second longest beach in the world, Mr.Samy said the project would cover 1.5-km stretch at Santhome and offer complexes of international standards to provide office accommodation for multinationals and embassies.

Residents of fishing hamlets along the beach would be relocated to a residential complex, which is to be built.

Briefing the media, the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, asserted that the new administrative city was "feasible" and "necessary" as the Secretariat complex located at Fort St. George was "inadequate" and "controlled by the Army". She said the scheme was in a preliminary stage and the Government would work out the financial aspect later. As for the Marina improvement project, she said the Government would only "give permission" and not make any investments.

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