CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday said that the successive AIADMK governments in Tamil Nadu alone could claim credit for implementing Metro Rail Project in Chennai and DMK president M Karunanidhi and his son MK Stalin had no locus standi to claim credit for this project.
Jayalalithaa said the claim of Karunanidhi and Stalin that the Metro Rail Project was evolved during the DMK regime was a blatant lie. “Indeed, the feasibility study for the project was conducted in 2003 and two routes - Washermanpet to Chennai Airport and Chennai Central to St Thomas Mount were selected for execution of the project.
On the charges that the Metro Rail fares are very high and that it should be reduced, the Chief Minister said Karunanidhi cannot talk about this as according to the MoU signed by him, at the first instance, the fare should be fixed by the Chennai Metro Rail Project and from the next time, the task should be given to an autonomous body.
Further, due to the faulty MoU signed by Karunanidhi, the estimated cost of the Metro Rail Project had gone up to Rs.20,000 crore and the State government had to cough up many thousand crores of rupees due to this.
In a seven-page statement here, the Chief Minister further said the previous DMK regime had completed only three per cent of the Metro Rail works till May 2011. But the AIADMK government expedited the implementation and so far had completed 76 per cent of the works and now had launched the service in the first phase.
Referring to the reports that while travelling in the Metro Rail, Stalin had slapped a co-passenger, Chief Minister condemned the incident and said that Stalin should behave himself in public places.