The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Minister inaugurates two railway overbridges

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Tamil Nadu

Minister inaugurates two railway overbridges

Staff Reporter

‘108 overbridges were constructed in the past four years ’

— PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN.

A new step: Union Minister of State for Railways R.Velu (third from left) inaugurates two rail - overbridges, one near Thimmanaickanpalayam and another near Uthukuli, on Saturday. (From left) State Minister for Handlooms NKKP.Raja, Union Minister of State for Textiles E.V.K.S.Elangovan, Union Minster of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan and State Minister for Highways M.P.Saminathan are in the picture.

UTHUKULI: Tamil Nadu has bagged a good number of railway projects in the past four years, particularly in rail-overbridge construction, Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu said. He was inaugurating two rail-overbridges one at Thimmanaickenpalayam and another near here on Saturday evening. The minister said 108 rail-overbridges were constructed in the past four years in the State.

It had been possible because the Union and State governments worked in tandem, as the alliance partners in the State and Centre were the same. He pointed out that for each bridge, the Union and State governments shared the cost equally, and the State Governments had to not only make allocations for the same but also help in land acquisition. Mr. Velu said the present Tamil Nadu Government had performed well in that regard as 90 of the 108 bridges had been built when the Democratic Progressive Alliance government was in power.

The rest were constructed during the last AIADMK rule. Once again attributing the success and volume of railway projects in Tamil Nadu to the in-tandem working of the governments, Mr.Velu said the State will soon have the distinction of having a uni gauge railway track, as works were on to convert the remaining metre gauge tracks into broad gauge ones.

The minister further said that under the Eleventh Five Year Plan the State had a substantial allotment for railway works.

As far as Erode district was concerned, the minister said in the Erode Railway Station works worth Rs. 3.13 crore had been completed, projects worth Rs. 3.52 were under progress and another Rs. 4.14 crore will be sanctioned for further development.

He also promised to sympathetically consider legislators’ proposal for an additional train from Erode to Chennai. Union Minister of State for Textiles E.V.K.S. Elangovan said only because of the UPA government in the Centre there had been some progress in the Sathyamangalam-Chamarajanagar railway line. He hoped that the Railway Minister would also favourably consider his proposal to have Sathyamangalam linked with Erode and Mettupalayam. Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan urged Mr. Velu to complete the long-pending Ingur rail-overbridge.

Mr. Velu promised that the work would begin soon. State Ministers N.K.K.P. Raja and M.P. Saminathan and MLAs R. M. Palanichamy, Vidiyal S. Sekar, O. Subramaniam and others participated.

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