All corridors of metro will be ready by 2016: Jayalalithaa

Chennai: Only three per cent of the metro construction work had been completed during the previous DMK regime ( 2007-11). While DMK spent only Rs 1,143 crore for the project, it was the AIADMK government that had so far spent Rs 9,229 crore since 2011, said Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in a statement on Thursday. The public will understand that it was the AIADMK regime which sowed the seeds for metro and assured that all corridors of the metro network would be ready by the end of 2016. Services between Chennai Airport and Little Mount and from Alandur to St Thomas Mount will be inaugurated by March next year, the CM said.

Jayalalithaa was confident that metro services from Koyambedu to Nehru Park would be operational by June next year. She also pointed out Karunanidhi had no locus  standi to talk about the metro fare as it was he who signed an MoU against the state's autonomy in the metro issue. Responding to the dem-and from the DMK chief for a reduction in metro train fare, she clarified that, "the train fare for metro is not fixed by state government, it is done by CMRL (Chennai Metro Rail Limited)."

Rebutting chief minister Jayalalithaa's allegation about the delay in execution of metro rail project, DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin said the project was delayed only due to Jayalalithaa  pursuing the monorail project. In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Stalin said the metro project suffered inordinate delay, its cost went up and the delayed implementation caused traffic bottleneck only because Jayalalithaa put the metro project on cold storage after assuming office in 2011.

Accusing the CM of claiming credit for various other schemes conceived during  the DMK rule, Stalin said the DMK was more concerned about the desired benefits of the schemes reaching the people than claiming credit for them.