TN to consider assisting SR for linking Central,Egmore:Velu

Chennai, June 18 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu government would consider providing possible assistance to the Southern Railway for linking the Chennai Central and Egmore Railway stations.

Giving this information to newspersons after a review meeting with State Chief Secretary L K Tripathy, Minister of State for Railways R Velu said the state government, which had expressed its inability to support the linkage scheme, has now offered to consider providing assistance.

It has been proposed to link the two major Railway stations, catering to passengers arriving from Southern districts and northern and western parts of the country, through the south bank of Cooum river, cutting across Poonamallee high road, Mr Velu said.

''We are considering whether to have an underground or overground linkage,'' the Railway Minister said.

He said the Railway Ministry has requested the state government to quicken land acquisition and other alignment process between Velachery and St Thomas Mount, so that the Railways could take up the Rs 495 crore project, extending the Madras Rapid Transit System (MRTS) from Velacherry to St Thomas Mount.

Mr Velu said his ministry has also requested the state government to offer a solution as its Express highway project from Chennai Port to suburban Maduravayal, was meeting the Metro Rail project at a point.

Giving details of the electrifiction projects, the Railways proposed to undertake in the state, Mr Velu wanted the state government to provide electricity at a concessional rate on the line of Kerala and Karnataka.

The Railways electrification between Thiruvananthapuram and Kanniyakumari and Villupuram and Madurai would be completed in April next and Tiruchirapalli and Madurai in April 2009, he added.

UNI