Tamil Nadu Denies Railway Minister’s Charges

Chennai: Minister of State for Transport and Power SS Sivashankar rejected Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s allegations that Tamil Nadu has not received the required land to implement various railway projects in the state, leading to delay in implementation of plans.

Sivashankar, who met with the media in Tiruchi on Tuesday, said that the acquisition process of 148.65.30 hectares of land is ongoing for 7 projects announced after 2021, while 73.65.01 hectares of land has been acquired to meet the need of 128.65.30 hectares for two major projects, the other five of which are small projects.

He said that land acquisition has been stopped in four villages on the Morappur-Dharmapuri broad gauge route due to law and order issues, while for the Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari project, the Railways has released only Rs 298.78 crore.

He said land acquisition for most schemes could not be carried out as the state received only Rs 739.31 billion for railway projects in the last five years.

The Minister of State specifically rejected the State government’s writing to the Union Government for removal of the Madurai-Thoothukudi line through Arupukottai and said that the State had actually requested this scheme.

He listed the routes where land acquisition has been fully completed in Tamil Nadu and also said that the process for several other routes is ongoing and in various stages of implementation and said that the Union Minister’s claim has no basis.