MADURAI : Southern Railway General Manager RN Singh convened a meeting with the Members of Parliament (MPs) representing constituencies under the Madurai division on Thursday, apprised them about the various achievements of the Southern Railway, and detailed on the development of passenger amenities specific to stations under the division. The meeting was attended by Principal Head of the all Departments of Southern Railway and Divisional Railway Manager Sarath Srivastava, Rajya Sabha MP R Dharmar, Lok Sabha MPs S Thirunavukarasar (Triuchy), S Venkatesan (Madurai), Dhanush M Kumar (Tenkasi), Karti P Chidambaram (Sivaganga), P Raveendhranath (Theni) among others.
Addressing media persons, Madurai MP S Venkatesan said the Southern Railway had decided against granting the railway ground initiative to private players following his six-year long efforts. Following this, General Manager RN Singh assured the fulfilment of the 18 demands raised by the MP, including the increase of services between Thoothukudi and Mettupalayam from weekly once to weekly thrice.
Further, Tiruchy MP S Thirunavukkarasu urged the general manager to ensure the participation of Railway Board members in the next MPs meeting and added that the board had granted permission for running train services between Rameswaram and Chennai via Pattukottai. He also demanded to release the budget allocation for Tamil Nadu with relevant data statistics.
Meanwhile, Sivaganga MP Karti P Chidambaram said that the central government's fund allocation for Tamil Nadu has been reduced significantly. "The BJP's position will be proven in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, as the DMK and Congress alliance will secure victory in all 39 seats," he added. Also, Theni MP P Raveendhranath Kumar said a decision on the BJP, TTV and OPS alliance will be made within a couple of days. "The BJP alliance will secure more seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha election and Narendra Modi will be the prime minister again," he added.
Principal Chief Engineer Desh Ratan Gupta, Principal Chief Operations Manager N Sreekumar, Principal Chief Commercial Manager Neenu Ittyerah, Principal Chief Commercial Manager AK Siddhartha, Chief Administrative Officer Amit Kumar Manuwal, Chief Security Commissioner Santhosh N Chandran and Chief Signal Engineer PV Murali Krishna among others officials were also present at the meeting.