Modi rides Chennai Metro with CM Vijay, opens Rs 13,000 crore projects and promises support for Tamil Nadu

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated and laid foundation stones for projects worth over Rs 13,000 crore across Tamil Nadu, and took a ride on Chennai's newest metro line with Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.

The main project was the Poonamallee-Vadapalani stretch of Chennai Metro Rail Phase II, built at a cost of about Rs 4,900 crore. The stretch has 11 elevated stations over about 15 km on Corridor Four, includes a 3.7-km double-decker section, and has signalling designed to support driverless trains. Modi and Vijay flagged off the services together and travelled from Porur Bypass to Poonamallee Bypass and back.

The other projects were spread across the state. They include highway works worth about Rs 3,700 crore, among them four-lane sections of NH-744 and the Madurai Ring Road and a bypass at Thiruvarur. Rail works worth over Rs 750 crore cover the Karaikal-Peralam line, three rail flyovers in the Coimbatore area and five redeveloped stations at Palani, Vellore Cantonment, Ambasamudram, Paramakkudi and Namakkal. There were also port projects at Chennai, VO Chidambaranar and Kamarajar ports, and a foundation stone for a Rs 1,620 crore lube oil base stocks unit at CPCL's Manali refinery.

Modi also dedicated the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre at IIT Madras and launched a global mission to map more than 100 human brains in 3D.

In his speech, Modi said India's metro network has grown from 250 km in 2014 to about 1,100 km in 25 cities. He listed the Tamil Nadu chief ministers he had worked with, including J Jayalalithaa, O Panneerselvam, Edappadi K Palaniswami and MK Stalin, and said his commitment to the state does not depend on who is in power there.

Vijay, according to Business Standard, used the occasion to put a list of requests before the Centre. He asked for approval of Chennai Metro Phase III, a fresh look at metro projects for Coimbatore and Madurai, and help with a Bommasamudram-Hosur inter-state metro. He also sought the release of Samagra Shiksha school education funds, the Godavari-Cauvery river-linking project, and high-speed rail corridors from Chennai to Coimbatore and Chennai to Kanyakumari.

Modi's schedule also included prayers at the Jalakandeswarar Temple and the golden jubilee of the Jaigopal Garodia Hindu Vidyalaya school in Chennai.