Chief Minister M Karunanidhi dream project, the new Secretariat – Assembly complex at Omandhurar Estate here, built at a cost of Rs 425 crore, will be inaugurated at a grand and a glittering ceremony in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi will take part.

Besides the two leaders, Chief Ministers of other southern States Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have been invited, as also scores of Union Ministers and party leaders, including from the BJP and CPI(M).

The huge complex is a labour of love of DMK president Karunanidhi, who has been visiting the latest landmark of Chennai on almost on a daily basis to review its progress. Karunanidhi had first made the announcement for the project in 2007 during the golden jubilee celebrations of his political career.

Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are scheduled to arrive here by a special flight for the programme and return the same day. Police have stepped up the security for the high-profile inaugural event that is expected to draw a huge crowd from all over the state.

The function would be presided over by Karunanidhi and State Governor Surjith Singh Barnala would also attend.Around 5,000 policemen are scheduled to guard the complex during its inauguration, where its first budget will be presented by Finance Minister K Anbazhagan on 19 March. Traffic diversions have also been put in place.

Flags of DMK and Congress are fluttering on city roads, especially of the latter, erecting banners and posters welcoming their party leaders, Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi.

Though all three southern Chief Ministers have been invited, official sources said Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, K Rosiah and B S Yedduryappa, respectively, are scheduled to participate.

Some banners erected near the airport hailed the new found friendship between Tamilnadu and Karnataka, locked in a dispute over Cavery river, following the two States’ statue diplomacy last year that led to betterment in relations.

The 58-year-old Tamilnadu Legislature concluded its last session on January 9, 2010 at the 17th century Fort St George. The first Legislature of the erstwhile Madras State after Independence was held in March 1952 at the Fort, located on the banks of the Bay of Bengal, which was regarded as the first ‘establishment’ of the British in India.