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Metro rail: State to get Central aid

Special Correspondent

Tamil Nadu will get the same assistance other States received: Chidambaram

— Photo: DIPR

key issues: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram having a discussion with Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi at the latter’s residence on Saturday.

CHENNAI: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday said Chennai would get the same assistance two other south Indian capital cities received for building a metro rail.

Asked if the Centre would sanction the amount of financial aid sought by the State Government for constructing the 46.5-km metro rail, Mr. Chidambaram, emerging from a meeting with Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said: “Metro rail projects have been cleared for Bangalore and Hyderabad. The same principles would be applied for Chennai also.”

Asked if he met Mr. Karunanidhi to give the State a Deepavali gift, he said Tamil Nadu’s needs were being met “quite adequately” by the Centre.

Issues discussed

“I was here to meet and discuss what more can be done. I discussed with him the power situation, then the World Bank-assisted scheme for repair and restoration of water bodies, I also discussed with him the need to look at roads …generally problems that I see when I travel in districts especially in my constituency,” he said.

Roads in State

On his criticism about the roads in the State, Mr. Chidambaram said that he told the Chief Minister that “all the literature on the subject points to three aspects regarding the quality of roads. First, the technical design of the road must take into account local climatic conditions, especially variations in temperature. Second is water. [It] is the biggest enemy of a tar road… Roads must be laid in a manner that water runs off from the road…Third is that adequate money must be provided for maintenance of the road. These are the three aspects that have been identified by all experts. I said the road building programme must take into account these three aspects, and whatever changes need to be done must be done,” he said.

Asked if the Centre would provide any technical assistance since most States laid bad roads, he said: “If they [States] wish for technical assistance we can find some technical assistance. [Providing] technical assistance is not a difficulty. We can always find the money.”

Forex reserves

To a query if foreign exchange reserves would be used for this, since he had earlier said that forex reserves could be used for creating infrastructure in the country, he said that was meant for large infrastructure projects.

“To build large infrastructure projects, certainly we can approach the IIFCL (India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited),” he said.

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