Joint ventures can help fast rail growth in Tamil Nadu: Suresh Prabhu

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government should work on joint ventures to develop the state of the railways and at a faster pace, Union minister of railways Suresh Prabhu said on Saturday.

Suresh Prabhu was speaking at Chennai Central, where he formally inaugurated the 5th and 6th line between Moore Market Complex and Basin Bridge junction railway stations, WiFi services at Egmore railway station and new passenger amenities at Tambaram station, among a slew of services.

The other facilities inaugurated include a passenger subway at the Nemilichery railway station, a double discharge platform at Mambalam railway station, new elevated booking office at Kodambakkam and a new foot overbridge and elevated booking office at Tiruninravur.

The extension of Chennai Manamadurai Silambu bi-weekly Express to Sengottai via Aruppukottai was announced as well.

“Of '1,31,000 crore earmarked for railways in the current financial budget, the gross budgetary support is '55,000 crore. Railways are raising the balance of '66,000 crore. The railway has earmarked '2,287 crore for Tamil Nadu this year, which can be put to better use if the state government forms joint ventures like the states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana and speed up railway works,” he said.

He added that Coimbatore—Bangalore train service will be started soon. “Coimbatore being an industrial area and Bangalore is a knowledge hub can bring in more development prospects,” he said. He also added that a new app that would offer all railway services like booking, launching complaints would be launched soon. M.R. Vijaya Bhaskar, the state minister for transport, appealed to the railway Minister to speed up the Madurai-Kanyakumari doubling project.