Tamil Nadu said in writing it did not want rail project: Railway Minister
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Chennai: Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw urged Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK to place welfare of the people above ‘politics’ claiming that the DMK administration in writing had said it was not willing to pursue a rail project in the state, NDTV reported.
The minister told reporters in Chennai on Friday that the project for linking the southern districts of Madurai and Thoothukudi has been shelved after the state government had given it in writing its unwillingness.
After inspecting Amrit Bharat and Vande Bharat sleeper coaches at ICF, Ashwini Vaishnaw said that ‘We need the state government's support in land acquisition. We must make sure that people's facilities are above politics and we must look at the welfare of the people first’.
Meanwhile, DMK Youth Wing countered the minister’s claims alleging that Ashwini Vaishnaw was ‘blatantly lying’, and shared Chief Minister Stalin’s letter in August seeking funds for the project.
The outfit in a post said: ‘Why is he saying it when the CM write a letter asking for a project and when in fact it is the Railways that has rejected the request stating frivolous reasons.’
State Transport Minister SS Sivasankar denied the state government ever having sought to withdraw the project verbally or in writing but added that it was instead insisting on the Centre to implement the project.
SS Sivasankar said Centre’s contradictory remarks show its discriminatory nature towards Tamil Nadu.
Southern Railway completed 18km out of the 143.5 km stretch between Milavittan and Melmarudur in 2022 after it started working on the project in 2016, which was announced in 2011-12.