Tamil Nadu News

Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai - CM New Office

August 7 , 2026 8 hrs 0 min 31 0

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has decided to shift his Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) to the 10th floor of Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai at Fort St. George, Chennai, due to space constraints.
Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai is a 10-storeyed government building constructed in 1975 inside the Fort St. George campus and houses several government departments and senior officials.
The need for a larger Secretariat building emerged in the late 1950s due to increasing government staff; in 1973, the Tamil Nadu government decided to construct a 10-storeyed building within the Fort St. George campus with a plinth area of 24,750 square metres.
The building was declared open on August 14, 1975, by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in the presence of Public Works Minister P.U. Shanmugam.
It was named Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai after Tamil poet Namakkal Kavignar V. Ramalingam Pillai.
The building was renovated 12 years ago at a cost of ₹28 crore and was inaugurated by former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.
At present, CM functions from the main block of the 17th-century Fort St. George structure.
Fort St. George is a protected historical monument established by the British East India Company in 1644 and later became the administrative centre of the Madras Presidency.
The shift aims to provide more administrative space while continuing operations from the historic campus.