Manohar Lal Khattar. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Metro Rail proposals submitted by the Tamil Nadu government for Coimbatore and Madurai have discrepancies, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar said on Thursday (November 20, 2025).
“It is unfortunate that Hon’ble Chief Minister Thiru. Stalin has chosen to politicise and create controversy over the application of The Metro Policy 2017, which is a procedure designed to ensure that costly infrastructure projects such as Metro Rail Systems, generate maximum benefit for the public,” he said in a social media post.
The Chief Minister on Wednesday (November 19) slammed the Union government, saying: “A government exists to serve the people without bias. Yet, the Union BJP (government) treats Tamil Nadu’s democratic choice as a reason to take revenge.”
Mr. Khattar said the Chief Minister has ignored the Central government’s “magnanimous sanction”, on October 3 last year, to the Chennai Metro Phase-2 project at a cost of ₹63,246 crore for a route length of 119 km. “This is the biggest-ever sanctioned metro project,” he said.
The Union Minister reiterated the technical points made in his Ministry’s letter dated November 14, 2025, to the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary while returning the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs).
The Minister said despite Coimbatore having a shorter route length compared to the Chennai Metro system, the traffic projections for Coimbatore are greater than those for Chennai. “On the face of it, it appears erroneous,” he said.
The projected average trip lengths and speed differentials between road traffic and the metro do not support the expectation of a modal shift of traffic to a metro system, he said.
Further, as per the DPR for Coimbatore, there is inadequate right of way at seven metro station locations.
He further said that the Comprehensive Mobility Plan of Madurai stipulates that with the current ridership, a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) is justifiable.
The Coimbatore Municipal Population (CMC with 257 sq. km) area has a population of 15.85 lakh (2011) and the Local Planning Area (LPA with 1287 sq. km) has a population of 7.7 lakh. Ridership projections are made for modal shifts within the Local Planning Area, which is five times bigger than the CMC area. This projected shift to metro system needs justification, he said.
Further, he said the Tamil Nadu government has chosen not to use the benefit of the Central government’s ‘PM e-bus sewa’ intended to provide 10,000 air conditioned e-buses in different cities. Under this scheme, Central financial assistance is given for buses, the creation of depot infrastructure, and Behind the Meter facilities. “Despite repeated persuasion, from GoTN has not participated in this scheme so far,” he said.
Published – November 20, 2025 12:07 pm IST
