The first Government medical college to be set up in Chennai in the last 55 years was inaugurated on Monday by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. A release by the State Government said this was the 20th Government medical college in the State and the first one to be set up in the capital city in the last 55 years. There are three other Government medical colleges in Chennai city, all set up before 1960.
Jayalalithaa inaugurated the medical college, set up at a cost of Rs200 crore, through video conferencing from Fort Saint George (the state secretariat). Interestingly, officials at the state secretariat described the inauguration of the medical college as an act of magic by the Chief Minister. The new medical college was built as the new secretariat by former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi who got it inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2010 though the construction remained incomplete. The dome, one of the many attractions of the new secretariat remained unfinished even on the day of inauguration.
Karunanidhi, familiar with cinemas and dramas, hired an art director who put a "cinematic dome" to hoodwink an unsuspecting Manmohan Singh who inaugurated the secretariat complex unaware of the dome built of plywood and plaster of paris. The day Jayalalithaa registered an impressive victory in the 2011 Assembly election, she announced that the secretariat would function from Fort Saint George. Within months of swearing in as CM, she declared that the new secretariat built at a cost of Rs1200 crore would be converted into a medical college cum super speciality hospital.