CHENNAI: Even as the Centre highlights a 7.5-fold rise in railway allocations to Tamil Nadu over the past decade, the State’s share has grown far slower than the national railway budget and several other states, DMK Rajya Sabha MP P Wilson has said, accusing the NDA government of step-motherly treatment.
In a post on X, Wilson referred to repeated statements by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw that Tamil Nadu was receiving significantly higher allocations under the present government compared to the UPA period. He argued that when viewed against the sharp expansion of the overall railway outlay, the relative increase for Tamil Nadu appeared modest and did not reflect parity with other major states.
According to Wilson, while the overall railway budget expanded nearly 25 times between 2009-14 and 2025-26, Tamil Nadu’s allocations rose only from Rs 879 crore to Rs 6,626 crore. Projecting the 7.5-fold increase in isolation, he said, created a misleading impression about the scale of support extended to the State.
To underline what he described as an imbalance, Wilson cited comparative figures for other states. Gujarat’s railway outlay increased from Rs 589 crore to Rs 17,155 crore, a 29-fold rise, while Delhi recorded a 27-fold increase. Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh registered 24-fold and 23-fold growth, respectively. Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh saw 20-fold and 18-fold rise, while Rajasthan, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar recorded higher growth multiples than Tamil Nadu.
Calling for equitable treatment, Wilson said Tamil Nadu deserved allocations in line with national growth trends and faster execution of pending projects, rather than what he termed the selective presentation of statistics to project performance.
Referring to a reply by the Ministry of Railways to his parliamentary questions, Wilson said the Ministry had granted in-principle approval to transfer the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) to the Tamil Nadu government, but acknowledged that the memorandum of understanding was still under preparation. This, he said, meant the long-pending integration of Chennai’s MRTS with the Chennai Metro Rail network remained incomplete.
Wilson also sought details on pending railway projects in Tamil Nadu, their allocations, reasons for delays and whether fresh tendering was proposed for the Athipattu-Gummidipoondi additional line. He said delays in project execution pointed to a lack of urgency in addressing the State’s infra requirements.