Karunanidhi claims credit for metro rail project

Chennai: Taking credit for initiating the Chennai metro rail project during his party’s regime in 2006-11, DMK president M. Karunanidhi on Sunday claimed that chief minister Jayalalithaa initially opposed the metro rail project but later accepted it reluctantly.

In a statement issued here, he said that Ms Jayalalithaa not only opposed the metro rail project but also announced a mono rail project. He alleged that AIADMK government did not pursue second phase of metro rail project as the government wanted to initiate works on the monorail.

After the mono rail project failed to take off, he said Ms Jayalalithaa demanded Central government assistance for executing 76 km long second phase of metro rail that would cost Rs 36,100 crore when she met the Prime Minister.