Amit Shah in TN, HM lays stone for Chennai Metro Phase-II

Chennai:Senior BJP Leader and Union Home Minister on Saturday dedicated the newly built 

Chennai's fifth reservoir and laid the foundation stone for the second phase of Chennai Metro Rail project. 

Mr Shah, who arrived from Delhi at 1340 hrs, drove to a star hotel for rest. From there, he came to the function venue, Kalaivanar Arangam where he laid the foundation stone for a slew 

of infrastructure projects involving a total outlay of Rs 67,378 crore in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief MinisterO Panneerselvam, Ministers and officials.

Security arrangements have been tightened in view of Mr Shah's visit with the deployment of more than 3,000 police personnel on bandobust duty.

During the 90-minute event, Mr Amit Shah dedicated the Rs 380 crore Thervoy Kandigai reservoir in neighbouring Tiruvallur district and laid the foundation stone for the Phase-II of Chennai Metro Rail at an estimated cost of Rs 61,843 crore.

The new reservoir was expected to further augment the drinking water requirements of this teeming megapolis, besides meeting the additional needs.  

The reservoir, formed by combining two lakes, Thervoy Kandigai and Kannankottai, was spread across 1,495 acres and would be the fifth reservoir for the city, adding to the existing four main reservoirs--Poondi, Sholavaram, RedHills and Chembarambakkam--which together have 

a total storage capacity of 11,257 mcft.

The new reservoir would facilitate supply of 65 million litres a day (MLD) water to the city and the project would raise the combined water storage in the lakes by 1,000 mcft.

Besides the Phase II of Chennai Metro Rail project, which was expected to make a transformational changein the city's transport system, Mr Shah also laid the foundation stones for the Coimbatore-Avinashi elevated highway project (Rs 1,620 crore), barrage across river Cauvery at Nanjai Pugalur in Karur district (Rs 406 crore), expansion of the Chennai Trade Centre (Rs 309 crore), Indian Oil Corporation's POL terminal at Vallur (Rs 900 crore), Lube Plant at Amullaivoyal (Rs 1400 crore) and a new Jetty at Kamarajar Port (Rs 900 crore) via video conferencing. 

The phase II Metro project will cover 118.9 kmwith three corridors, Madhavaram to SIPCOT,

Madhavaram to Sholinganallur and Light House to Poonamallee as CMRLwas awaiting funding

from the Centre for the project.

For the Rs 60,000-crore project, CMRL will get financial assistance from the State government

and various international funding agencies like the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and others.

Amit Shah visits Chennai to meet BJP's ally

Chennai: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is visiting Chennai on Saturday to meet BJP's alliance partners in poll bound Tamil Nadu.The Tamil Nadu Assembly elections will be held in April-May next year along with four other state Assembly polls.

According to political observers, "After BJP's robust performance in Bihar,it remains to be seen if Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity in North Indian states can have similar traction in non-Hindi speaking bastions like Bengal, Tamil Nadu."

Informatively, in TN, there is no "Opposition vacuum" as in Bengal due to "near-total collapse" of the Congress and the Left.The observers were of the view that "the BJP can only expand its Hindutva base at the expense of it's ally, and governing party,AIADMK."

Incidentally, these "tensions" were exposed in recent weeks with BJP's 'Vetrivel Yatra'dedicated to Lord Muruga not receiving permission from the AIADMK government.

"Unlike neighbouring Karnataka, where BJP has been able to build on the Lingayat vote base, the party is still largely seen as a north Indian, Aryan outfit in TN where Dravidianist ideology is strong," the observers opined.

They also remarked -"While PM Modi's personal popularity can't be underestimated,BJP's lack of a strong, charismatic Tamil leader is a handicap."

EPS, OPS says alliance with BJP to continue for TN Assembly polls

Chennai:The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu today emented its alliance with the BJP saying it would continue for the Assembly elections due in 4-5 months time.

This was announced by Chief Minister and AIADMK joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister and Coordinator O Panneerselvam at an official event in which Union Home Minister Amit Shah participated and launched a slew of developmental projects.

After Mr Panneerselvam, in his address, said that the alliance would  continue for the Assembly polls, Mr Palaniswami later made a similar remark.Both the leaders also said that the AIADMK would win the upcoming elections for the third time with more seats. 

This has put at rest speculations about possible differences between the two parties in the wake of the AIADMK government denying permission for BJP's Vetri Vel Yatra and resorting to arrest of BJP leaders citing COVID pandemic. Mr Panneerselvam also praised Mr Shah as the youngest Home Minister of the country.(UNI)