CHENNAI: After triggering a furious row over the Madurai to Thoothukudi new railway line project, which prompted the Tamil Nadu government to issue a detailed rebuttal citing various documents, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw clarified that his comment that the State government was not in favour of the project was a result of confusion.
When he met the press in Chennai on January 10 when he visited the Integral Coach Factory, the media persons asked Vaishnaw several questions about the projects in Tamil Nadu.
Among the queries posed to the Minister was a question about the status of the Madurai-Thoothukudi new railway line (Earlier, DT Next had reported that the Railway Ministry put the project on backburner, which triggered a series of efforts from the State government to bring it back on the anvil.)
According to the clarification, “due to the background noise” at the factory, the Minister heard it as the Dhanushkodi project. “Accordingly, the Minister's reply was regarding Dhanushkodi line project that State government has written to Railway Ministry that this project may be dropped due to land/environmental issues. Therefore, the media persons took his above comments as meant for Madurai -Thoothukudi project, thus causing unintended confusion,” said the clarification.
After it created umbrage on the part of the Tamil Nadu government, which recalled the letters that were written to the Union government urging it to hasten the project, Minister Vaishnaw clarified categorically that “there is no land-related issues from the Tamil Nadu government” on the Madurai-Thoothukudi project.
The Minister termed the confusion on miscommunication due to “noisy factory environment and many media personnel from national and state asking multiple questions on pan-India railway issues simultaneously.”