CHENNAI: Five days after Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw alleged that the 143.5 km long Madurai-Thoothukudi (via Aruppukottai) new line project has been dropped since the Tamil Nadu government did not want it, the Southern Railway on Wednesday clarified that the Minister misheard the question from the media and responded thinking that it was about the Rameswaram-Dhanushkodi project.
A statement issued by the Southern Railway said the Minister clarified that “there are no land-related issues from Tamil Nadu government” regarding the Madurai-Thoothukudi project.
However, it failed to clearly spell out whether the project is still under implementation or whether it has been “frozen” due to “low freight prospects” as mentioned in a communication from Southern Railway to State’s Transport department in December.
Moreover, the statement did not explain the disbanding of the land acquisition unit for the Madurai-Thoothukudi project, which was functioning in Madurai, from January 1.
During the Minister’s visit to the Integral Coach Factory here on Friday, it was TNIE that posed a direct question on the alleged dropping of the Madurai-Thoothukudi project, by specifically citing the recent disbanding of the land acquisition unit.
“The Tamil Nadu government has informed us in writing that it does not want the project,” was the response from the Minister, who did not elaborate further.
Southern Railway’s statement on Wednesday said the Minister heard the question as relating to Dhanushkodi project due to “noisy factory environment” and many media personnel asking “multiple questions on pan-India railways issues simultaneously”.
Consequently, the statement said the Minister’s reply was about the Rameswaram-Dhanushkodi project, for which the State government has written to the Railway Ministry, saying that the project “may be dropped due to land / environmental issues”.
It further said, “The media persons took his above comments (the Minister’s reply) as meant for the Madurai-Thoothukudi project, thus causing unintended confusion”.
Vaishwnaw’s response attracted strong criticism from Tamil Nadu’s transport minister SS Sivasankar, who accused the Minister for making “contradictory” statements and pointed out that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin had, in fact, stressed expeditious implementation of the project. The ruling DMK’s IT Wing, in a statement on social media platform ‘X’, blamed the minister for 'blatantly lying' and urged him to clarify it his reply was a 'slip of the tongue'.
While Wednesday’s statement from Southern Railway did not explain the present status of the Madurai-Thoothukudi project, a spokesperson told TNIE that the project remained on the sanctioned list of works and that they were awaiting further directions from the Railway Board regarding fund allocation and other details.
The work for this new line, which intends to cover underserved areas in southern districts besides providing connectivity to Thoothukudi port for freight movement, began in 2016. Only 18 km of the 143.5 kilometre stretch has been completed and cleared for the operation of the project, which is estimated to cost Rs 2,054 crore in total.