CHENNAI: PMK founder and chief S Ramadoss on Friday urged the Centre to grant approvals for the Metro Rail project proposal for Madurai and Coimbatore and accused the government of applying an uneven policy.
Ramadoss stressed that the union government must consider the rising population, future development needs, and the regional significance of the two cities and approve the proposals.
Noting that the state government had sent a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for a metro rail project in Coimbatore estimated at Rs 10,740 crore and Rs 11,368 crore for Madurai, Ramadoss said the Centre had sought additional details on the projects and the state government had sent additional documents as requested, and had even commenced land acquisition in anticipation of approval.
However, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs recently rejected the state government's proposal, citing that the population in both cities is less than 20 lakh as per the 2011 Census.
The PMK chief pointed out that the central government has already granted approvals for Metro rail services in several cities, including Agra, Kanpur, Pune, Patna, Indore, Bhopal, and Surat, despite these cities having populations similar to Madurai and Coimbatore.
He demanded that the Centre grant approvals and release funds for the metro rail projects in these two cities, considering the increasing population and for future development.
Chief Minister M K Stalin had slammed the Centre for rejecting the Metro Rail projects, and called the move an act of 'revenge' against the people of the State.
Responding to the Chief Minister's comments, BJP National President of BJP Mahila Morcha (Women's Wing), Vanathi Srinivasan said Tamil Nadu can resubmit using urban agglomeration (UA) data (Coimbatore UA is 21+ lakh) or give special justification -- just like Agra metro was approved for tourism. Similar precedents exist for Bhopal and Patna.