The new Secretariat Complex built at a cost of Rs1200 crore at Chennai by the previous DMK regime led by M Karunanidhi will soon be converted into a multi-super specialty hospital cum medical college, according to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

She made an announcement about the government move in the state assembly on Friday much to the shock of the DMK leadership.

The new secretariat complex, described as the dream project of Karunanidhi, was the centre of a major controversy since Jayalalithaa declared that her government would function from Fort Saint George, the previous headquarters of the state administration. Her first move after swearing in as chief minister was to order the shifting of the secretariat to the old building.

Inaugurated on March 13 2010 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the presence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, the new Secretariat was rated as the biggest and tallest building in Chennai. But there were complaints of cost overrun and delay in the completion of the project. Even as the Prime Minister inaugurated the new building, half the construction works remained unfinished. Karunanidhi was forced to hire the services of Thotta Tharini, art director, to build a filmi set to convince Manmohan Singh that everything with the secretariat was hunky-dory.

Jayalalithaa, the then opposition leader had criticised the DMK government for building such an ostentatious structure even as the state was undergoing a severe financial crunch. It was known on day one of her swearing-in as chief minister she had an ace up her sleeve with regard to the new secretariat.

She had sought the guidance and opinion of a group of medical doctors about the possibility of converting the new secretariat to a multi-super specialty hospital in the lines of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Army Referral Hospital.

“The new super specialty hospital will be the largest of its kind in this part of the country,” said a source in the AIADMK. He said that the hospital in all likelihood would be named MGR Super Specialty Hospital and Medical College.

A commission of enquiry has been constituted by the AIADMK government to probe the irregularities connected with the building of the new secretariat.