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The Hindu : Cities / Coimbatore : MDMK launches campaign for better rail infrastructure by greatindian on 03 August, 2012 - 06:00 AM
avatar greatindian The Hindu : Cities / Coimbatore : MDMK launches campaign for better rail infrastructure on 03 August, 2012 - 06:00 AM

The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) on Wednesday launched a campaign aimed at mobilising public support towards the poor rail infrastructure in the region and to exert pressure on the State and Central Governments to bring in new projects to develop public transportation-related infrastructure for Coimbatore to accelerate its growth.

The campaign was launched by District Secretary of the party V. Easwaran and City Unit Secretary R.R. Mohankumar at Sundarpuram.

Peripheral areas

It covered the peripheral areas of Coimbatore City (some of them now annexed to the Corporation) namely Aatuppalayam, Kuniamuthur, Kovaipudur, Perur, Vedapatti, Vadavalli, Idayarpalayam, Kavundampalayam, Thudialur, Saravanampatti, Kalapatti, Chinniampalayam and Sulur.

The campaigners urged the State to expedite measures for getting metro rail project for Coimbatore City. They pointed out that the Urban Development Ministry of the Union Government in 2011 announced metro rail project for 19-tier two cities.

They said that while many cities have reached the stage of finalising the Detailed Project Report (DPR), it was unfortunate that no work has commenced in Coimbatore. Even Kerala was getting ready for a metro rail for Kochi and mono-rail for Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. Any project for that matter would require six to eight years for bringing in a transportation system into use.

Similarly, they also pointed out that in railway projects with State participation, ten States have tied up with the Indian Railways for 31 projects for 5,000 km and Karnataka was topping the list with 14 projects.

Unfortunately, there is not a single project for even one km as far as Tamil Nadu was concerned. They urged the State Government to grab the opportunity and explore the feasibility of a broad gauge line from Coimbatore to Karur.

They also demanded measures to expedite the various railway projects moving at a snail’s pace in Coimbatore such as Podanur – Palani gauge conversion and a number of road overbridges across level crossings.