Rail Budget 2014: Tamil Nadu feels left out of grand schemes

Chennai: Tamil Nadu continues to feel isolated when it comes to the Railway budget. The state came away with very little from the union railway minister Sadanand Gowda’s maiden budget in which only a meager five of a total of 58 new trains were apportioned to Tamil Nadu. Gowda announced no new railway line or doubling of tracks for the state. Going by the rate of train and project allocations in past budgets, this year’s quota seems to pale, Experts are pointing to the lack of clarity on allocation for pending projects like the doubling of the Villupuram-Madurai line. Stations in the city hoping for the elite status of a terminal like Royapuram and Tambaram were also ignored.