Jaya dismisses DMK's claims of initiating Chennai metro rail

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today said it was her government which sowed the seeds for the Chennai Metro Rail and dismissed claims of arch rival DMK that it had initiated the project.
Referring to DMK's allegations of delay in execution of the Metro Project, Jayalalithaa said only three per cent of the work was completed during 2007-11 by the DMK regime.
"Between 2007 and 2011, during the DMK regime, only three per cent of work was done. In the past four years, 73 per cent of the work was completed in my government and service between Alandur and Koyambedu is launched," she said in a statement here today.

The feasibility study for the Metro Project was done only in 2003 in the AIADMK regime, she said.
"It is a pure lie to say that the plan was devised and executed expeditiously during the DMK regime," she said.
Though DMK was an ally of the Congress, it could get the Centre's nod for the project only in 2009, she added.

Also, it was only on February 15, 2011 during the fag end of the DMK tenure that an MoU was inked among the Centre, State and Chennai Metro Rail, she said.
While DMK spent only Rs 1,143 crore for the project during its regime, Rs 9,229 had been spent till date by the AIADMK government since it assumed power in 2011, the CM said.

"People will easily understand that it is the AIADMK regime which sowed the seeds for Metro Rail Project," she said adding, DMK leaders M Karunanidhi and Stalin were "confusing" people to gain political mileage.
She also said that all corridors of the Metro network would be operational by the end of 2016.
Services between Airport and Little Mount and from Alandur to St Thomas Mount will be inaugurated by March next year, she said.
Similarly, services from Koyambedu to Nehru Park would be operational by June next year, she added.