Tamil Nadu govt appoints special officer to expedite construction of Jayalalithaa memorial

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has appointed former PWD superintending engineer R Pandiarajan as a special officer to expedite construction of the memorial of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Marina Beach in Chennai.
Pandiarajan, who retired on April 30, will monitor and coordinate the final phase of the project. The government passed an order in this regard on December 16.
Pandiarajan would facilitate the PWD engineers and others involved in the project to complete the work in a few weeks.
AIADMK sources said chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami was keen on opening the memorial ahead of the assembly election. “The reason for the appointment of a special officer for a period of three months is also to get the job done at the earliest,” said a source.
The construction of the phoenix-style mausoleum commenced in May 2018 at a cost of around Rs 50 crore. As the construction commenced, the cost of the project escalated to Rs 76 crore. “It was nearing completion. We have completed all the structure work and taken up painting and beautification of the key structure (phoenix style structure above the burial spot of the former CM),” said a senior engineer who was part of the project.
“We will hand over the fully completed memorial in the first week of January. At present, the second layer of painting is going on and six more layers of paint would be done on Phoenix structure to give a marble finishing look to it,” he added.