Salem: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has slammed dubious environmentalists and opportunistic politicians attempting to block the Chennai-Salem green expressway corridor and defended the project saying creating infrastructure is vital not only for the development of the state but also in providing jobs to the educated youth.
Dismissing as “figment of imagination” a charge levelled against his government that the project was meant to benefit private miners, Mr Palaniswami told reporters at the airport here on Saturday that this was a false and malicious campaign aimed at tarnishing the image of the government. “The project is not meant for the benefit of any individual but for overall development of Tamil Nadu,” he stressed.
“Due to political vendetta and hoping that my government will earn a bad name, some people are trying to stop the Rs 10,000-crore eight-lane project by inciting the people. Personally, I don't have any stakes in it,” Mr Palaniswami said in reply to a query on reports that the expressway project was meant to favour private mining firms.
As far as the state government is concerned, its task was to acquire land for this central project and also to compensate the land owners, he said and asserted that the project would meet the needs of the projected volume of vehicular traffic, cut fuel costs, reduce accidents besides ensures better and quicker connectivity to other parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well. “The vehicle population which has increased to 2.57 crore now is expected to reach 3.27 crore when the project gets completed in about four to five years' time from now,” he said.
Nearly 16,214 lives have been lost on this stretch in road accidents and the state government was bound to provide a quality road to the public, using modern technology, he added. Also, Salem, Namakkal, Karur, Erode, Coimbatore and Madurai would progress industrially once the road is laid.
Asked about the confusion prevailing over the compensation sum, Mr Palaniswami replied that the present government was offering more compensation than what was given during the DMK dispensation, as the guideline value had increased. “We have increased the guideline value several times. At certain places, for a hectare a compensation sum of Rs. 3 crore or Rs. 4 crore will be obtained and at certain other places Rs.10 to Rs. 30 lakhs will be got,” he said.
The 277.3-km-long eight-lane greenfield project will be executed by the Centre under 'Bharatmala Pariyojana' and it is aimed to stimulate growth like the Mumbai-Pune and Delhi-Agra expressway projects, Mr Palaniswami had said.
