Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

QMC to be pulled down for new Secretariat

By Feroze Ahmed

CHENNAI MARCH 22. The Queen Mary's College here will be demolished to make way for the proposed new Secretariat, according to architects competing for the project.

The architects invited by the Government confirmed that they were told to draw a front elevation for the Secretariat, to be built at the place where the QMC now functions. They were asked to model the Secretariat on the Vidhan Soudha, from where the Karnataka Assembly functions, but with five domes.

The architects said some of the invitees were dismayed at the site selection for various reasons, but hoped the Government would eventually opt for another location. Government officials had told them that the heritage buildings in the QMC would have to be torn down anyway for wear and tear, they have become ``unfit for occupation''.

The earlier proposal to build the Secretariat on the Lady Willingdon Institute site was abandoned, as it did not have adequate depth. The QMC site, on the other hand, allows a spread of about 26 acres.

Officials of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, agency handling the project, said the Secretariat was initially planned as a multistorey structure along the Marina, but Development Control Rules would have to be modified for that and the zone reclassified to allow construction of multistorey buildings.

Authorities of the QMC said they were unaware of any development, but revealed that the Directorate of Collegiate Education had recently asked for site details. The DCE was not available for comment.

According to college authorities, the demolition of the Capper House - first house on the Marina and late 1880s heritage site on the college premises - was taken up as it was falling apart, and its pulling down had nothing to do with the Secretariat project.

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