STALIN'S METRO DREAM DERAILS

The CM and city-dwellers cry foul as Centre rejects Metro proposals for Madurai and Coimbatore

- By Kavitha Muralidharan

TO THE UNTRAINED EYE, IT WOULD appear like a mundane bureaucratic event—a central department returning the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for a couple of Metro projects. Maybe to seek a technical correction of some sort? Well, no. When you’re talking Tamil Nadu and New Delhi, every act of rejection is freighted and fraught. Consider that a Metro Rail is a showpiece of modern urbanity that’s functionally vital for cities clocking robust growth. In this case, there are two: Coimbatore and Madurai. So what the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs (Mo-HUA) marked 'return to sender' on are high-prestige proposals. That too for a southern state that's already aggrieved on several fronts. The right platform, then, for a whole train of rage to arrive.

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