The public works department will meet chief minister M K Stalin regarding the work to be started on the contentious pen memorial to be installed in the ocean in memory of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, people aware of the matter said.

A day after the Supreme Court refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) against the Tamil Nadu government’s plans,the state is moving fast.

“We will have to arrive at the dates for when work will start and when we aim to complete it,” an official said.

The plan for the project has been split into two phases. “The second phase is installing the pen in the ocean,” public works minister E V Velu said. “We have not made any decisions yet. We will meet the chief minister. The chief minister will announce the date of when we would start construction work.” The first phase, he said, pertained to conceptualising a memorial, conducting public hearings and obtaining no-objections certificates from concerned central bodies.

A fisherman, Nallathambi, had filed a petition in January against the ₹81-crore project, 42m-tall structure of a fountain pen just 360m on the Marina beach off the Bay of Bengal coast, on the grounds of environmental damage and loss of livelihoods.

Recently, AIADMK spokesperson and former fisheries minister D Jayakumar filed an intervening petition. DMK MP and senior counsel P Wilson submitted to the SC that the plea is a politically motivated petition and not in public interest. He added that the NGT (National Green Tribunal) is seized of the issue and that the Tamil Nadu government has also secured a Coastal Regulation Zones (CRZ) clearance and other approvals.

This proposed Pen Monument involves both onshore and offshore construction where the pen is to be at sea in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of Marina Beach. It will be developed in 2.11 acres with more than 2200 square metres of the sea area to be reclaimed for the pen pedestal which will come up above sea and a pedestrian pathway above sea, according to the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report.

A pedestrian bridge from Karunanidhi’s existing memorial on the Marina beach to the PEN will be at an elevation of 6m from the High Tide Line. The length of the bridge over the Land is 290 m and over the Sea is 360 m covering a travel distance of 650 m. The Bridge will be 9 m wide with a glass flooring of 2 m. “The facility was designed to suit the climate of Chennai,” says the EIA report.