Feb 07 2015 : The Times of India (Chennai)
CM urges rly min to consider TN proposals ahead of budget
Chennai:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam on Friday urged railway minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu to favourably consider some of the proposals for the state in the coming railway budget for 2015-16.
In a letter to Prabhu, he said, “It is learnt from Southern Railway officials that some of these projects -most notably the doubling of the Chennai-Kanyakumari broad gauge line and the Avadi-Guduvancheri and Avadi Tiruvallur-Ennore port link are being taken up for implementation. We request you to kindly ensure that adequate funds are allocated in the budget for the early completion of these projects.“
The chief minister wanted the Centre to provide adequate funds for 10 projects, including completion of doubling for Chennai-Kanyakumari line, SriperumbudurGuindy freight line, Chennai Tuticorin freight corridor, Chennai-Madurai-Kanyakumari high speed passenger rail link, Madurai-Coimbatore high speed passenger rail link, Coimbatore-Chennai high speed passenger rail, Chennai-Bengaluru high speed rail link, ChennaiBengaluru freight corridor, Avadi-Guduvancheri rail link and AvadiTiruvallurEnnore port link. The total cost for all these 10 projects was around `1.88 lakh crore, he said.
“I expect that the ChennaiBengaluru freight corridor and the Chennai-Bengaluru high speed passenger link would be high priority pro jects under the Chennai-Bengaluru industrial corridor promoted by the department of industrial policy and promotion,“ he said. “The state is willing to enter an MoU in principle to set up special purpose vehicles (SPV) to promote the three railway projects proposed in the Madurai-Tuticorin industrial corridor,“ he said.
“Since the land is provided by the state, it should be treated as part of its equity contribution to the SPV at market value and matching equity contributions from the ministry of railways could be in cash or in the form of land,“ the chief minister said.