CHENNAI: Congress MP from Sivagangai Karti P Chidambaram and DMK MP from Perambalur K N Arun Nehru publicly discussed their differences over the issue of extending metro facility to Trichy.
Karti Chidambaram set the tone for the debate after he posted a ‘reply’ on his ‘X’ page saying, “Trichy doesn’t need a metro. We need to end these grand unthinking projects. Focus on the basics.”
Arun Nehru, who hails from Trichy, responded to his Parliamentary colleague’s wisdom on the microblogging site by arguing, “Mr Karthi. I have been thanking people of Perambalur constituency for choosing me. My Parliamentary constituency consists of four Assembly constituencies from Trichy district. People have been overwhelmingly positive on the need for metro projects connecting rural areas to Trichy city centre which houses colleges, hospitals, government offices. You must understand that the city has grown rapidly and needs modern infrastructure like the metro to manage the urban density where roads cannot handle future population growth.”
Surprisingly, another Congress MP Manickam Tagore from Virudhunagar rushed to the defense of Nehru instead of his party colleague and said, “Trichy and Madurai’s next 20 years can be transformed with a metro system, modern airports, and upgraded railways. Let’s unite to build world-class infra that will make our cities future-ready for the next generation.”
Unsurprisingly, Nehru acknowledged the expression of solidarity and said, “Thanks @manickamtagore. Just adding a few data points to help people understand the nature of growth of Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu is more urbanized at 48.4% of people living in urban areas versus 30% for the rest of India. It is estimated to touch 67% by 2030. This will make metro projects a highly preferred mode in the future.”