Tamil Nadu has the potential to drive India's growth: Suresh Prabhu

Will discuss with the new government about SPVs for Railway projects, the Railway Minister said

Tamil Nadu has to potential to drive the growth of India, but could not achieve this full potential in the past, said Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

Speaking to reporters before addressing a gathering in Chennai, he said that the State has been contributing to national building and has a potential to become the driving force of the country's growth similar to California driving the growth of United States.

"We feel sorry that Tamil Nadu is not able to achieve the real potential of economic and social growth," said the minister. He claimed that in the last two years, the BJP lead government in the centre has brought in significant changes in the landscape of India through various projects such as Make in India, Digital India and others. Standard and Poor has said that the effects of Make in India has started reflecting in the growth.

He said once BJP came to power in states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, which earlier did not choose the party, it has been repeatedly elected later. He added that the Railway Ministry has implemented 139 points it has mentioned in the Railway Budget and has tied up with companies like GE and Alstom for faster growth in the sector.

When asked whether the Railway Ministry received support from the Tamil Nadu government on its various projects, he said that Tamil Nadu has an important role in the projects and the State government has an important part to play in it. He added that the ministry will continue discussions with the new government related to the special purpose vehicle (SPV) to execute projects in the State. The ministry has earlier announced it would set up SPV with various State governments for execution of its projects. However, Tamil Nadu government has said that there were certain concerns regarding the draft MoU for the SPV, which has to be addressed by the Railway ministry.

It may be noted that Piyush Goyal, Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy, Pon Radhakrishnan, Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping among others have earlier alleged that the State government and the Chief Minister are not accessible for them for execution of various projects.

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