Refuting Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s claim that the actual study for Chennai Metro Rail was done in 2003, when the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) was in power, DMK leader M. Karunanidhi asked her to spell out the date when the State Cabinet discussed the issue.
“She was the Chief Minister of the State between 2003 and 2006. Can she say how much of the work was completed then,” Mr. Karunanidhi said in a statement issued here on Friday.
He said the decision to implement the project was taken by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Cabinet in 2006 and the work was handed over to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) after commissioning a Detailed Project Report (DPR).
“When the Cabinet approved the project on November 1, 2007, Chennai Metrol Rail Ltd. (CMRL) was created and registered under the companies act on December 3,” he said.
To drive home the point that Ms. Jayalalithaa sought to implement the Monorail project instead of the Metro, Mr. Karunanidhi recalled a reference to the monorail in the Governor’s address in 2011. “The government said the Monorail would cover 111 km in the first phase and 300 km in the next. There was no reference to the Metro in the Governor’s address,” he said. Finance Minister O. Pannerselvam had not talked about the Metro in the Budget presented on August 4, 2011, Mr. Karunanidhi said.
“In the 2012 Budget, he [Mr. Pannerselvam] said tenders for the Monorail would be floated soon. He said it would be operated on four routes,” Mr. Karunanidhi said.
The AIADMK government did a rethink of the Monorail after all sections of society welcomed the Metro project. The AIADMK realised that it would be impossible to stall the project, he said.
On Ms. Jayalalithaa’s allegation that he had signed the fare agreement for the Metro, Mr. Karunanidhi said the former had clarified that there was a separate body to fix the fares.
“As leaders of all political parties have demanded a reduction in the fare, Ms. Jayalalithaa could use her good offices and bring down the fare,” he said.
