Virudhunagar MP shocked over proposal to freeze new railway line project

Shock over proposal to put on hold Madurai-Thoothukudi new railway line project; MP Tagore to raise issue in Parliament & mobilize MPs from southern districts to protest.

Virudhunagar MP B. Manickam Tagore has expressed shock over the proposal by Southern Railway General Manager R.N. Singh to “put on freeze” the ambitious Madurai-Thoothukudi new railway line project via Aruppukottai.

“The railways is not functioning in a democratic manner and they are not sharing information [on such projects with elected representatives],“ he said.

The officials would not come out clean on such controversial issues. “They will not say the Railway Board has rejected the project, but will only claim that they are awaiting a nod from the board,” he added.

Mr. Tagore, who sounded disappointed over the proposal to put the project on hold, said the Narendra Modi Government would have given it up. “A new government [at the Centre] will be formed by INDIA alliance in the next eight months and the work will be taken up by the new government,” he said.

According to railway sources, the work was sanctioned in 1999-2000 for providing a new line between Madurai and Thoothukudi via Aruppukottai to decongest the Madurai-Virudhunagar-Kovilpatti-Vanchi Maniyachchi double line section.

“While work on Madurai-Tirupparankundram and Thoothukudi Milavittan sections were completed under the doubling project, work on the 18-km stretch between Milavittan and Mela Marudhur was completed in January 2022,” a railway official said.

The new line was cleared for operation by the Commissioner of Railway Safety, but commercial operation of the section was yet to begin. The very purpose of the new line was to facilitate transportation of coal to some thermal power plants in Thoothukudi district. Besides, it was aimed at promoting the industrial corridor planned on Thoothukudi-Aruppukottai-Madurai sector.