Anna Centenary Library may inaugurated on September 15

Updated on: Friday, August 13, 2010

Anna Centenary Library and the Botanical Garden will be inaugurated to coincide with the Anna birth anniversary on September 15. The day will also mark the formal moving in of Assembly staff into the new Assembly complex on Mount Road.

The Public Works Department (PWD) and its contractors are racing against time to make sure that the library building is completed on time. It had set a June deadline for completing works on the Rs.172 crore, nine-storeyed building. This could not be adhered to and the Libraries Directorate, which is taking keen interest in the building, set the September deadline.

The building overshot some of its interim deadlines because initially, workers from the library site were moved to the Secretariat for completing works there ahead of the budget session (both buildings were awarded to the same contractor). The World Classical Tamil Conference also led to delays in execution of the project as PWD officials were involved in the works at Coimbatore.

Unlike the Secretariat, where work has been going on long after its formal inauguration by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the library building has to be ready in all aspects before inauguration. â€œThe library is a public building. We have to make sure that facilities are in place on September 15. We cannot say that we will continue the works after the inauguration,â€ a senior official pointed out.

On Wednesday, School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu was again at the site reviewing the progress of works and asking PWD officials to show greater sense of urgency on the project. At the Botanical Garden, all wild growth has been cut out. Korean grass is the recurring theme throughout the park, and the Agriculture Department has thrown in plant species alien to Chennai.

A guesthouse (resting area) planned has been scrapped and the extent of the food court on the premises cut down to nearly a tenth of the planned size. A subway planned to link the two patches of greenery on either side of Cathedral road has been abandoned in favour of an elevated link.

At the new Assembly complex, because of the Chief Minister's direct and everyday review and involvement, both the Assembly and the Legislative Council portions have been fully completed.

Anna Centenary Library may inaugurated on September 15

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