PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss has opposed reported plans by the Tamil Nadu government to establish a new Secretariat at the 13.22-acre Pallavan Illam site on Chennai’s Anna Salai, warning that the project could worsen one of the city’s major traffic bottlenecks and expose the proposed administrative hub to flood risks.
Ramadoss said the government should not repeat earlier mistakes by choosing a congested central-city location for a large administrative complex. He called instead for an integrated administrative city on Chennai’s outskirts, arguing that the state’s long-standing requirement for a modern Secretariat should be addressed through a larger, planned site.
The opposition follows reports that the government has moved away from an earlier proposal to build the Secretariat at Pattinapakkam and is considering Pallavan Illam instead. The supplied report does not include a government confirmation of the reported shift or details of a final decision on construction.
According to Ramadoss, the Pallavan Illam parcel measures 13.22 acres, substantially smaller than the 26.36 acres associated with the Pattinapakkam proposal and the 39.54 acres earlier allotted at Omandurar Estate. He said the limited size would constrain the development and leave little scope for future expansion.
The site’s location also forms a central part of the objection. It is situated along the Cooum River and surrounded by busy arterial roads, a war cemetery and a temple. Ramadoss said these surrounding conditions could create serious challenges for access, movement and expansion, while the site’s proximity to the river raises flood-related concerns.
Anna Salai is already a heavily used urban corridor, carrying substantial daily traffic through central Chennai. A large government complex would add employees, visitors, official vehicles and service-related movement to an already constrained road network, according to the concerns raised by the PMK president. The supplied report does not provide a traffic impact assessment or details of any proposed mobility plan for the site.
Ramadoss said Tamil Nadu has needed a modern Secretariat for about 25 years but argued that the requirement should not be met by placing a large administrative hub in a congested city pocket. He proposed a 500-to-1,000-acre administrative city outside Chennai, designed to serve the state over a much longer period.
The dispute therefore places the choice of a Secretariat site within a broader question of how major public institutions should be located in a growing metropolitan region: inside established urban corridors, where access to government may be easier but land and road capacity are constrained, or on larger peripheral sites that allow expansion but require stronger regional connectivity. The next key development will be the Tamil Nadu government’s formal position on the reported Pallavan Illam proposal and any accompanying site, traffic or flood assessments.
