Railway minister to inaugurate subways already opened by MP

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:24.02.2019

Railway minister Piyush Goyal is slated to inaugurate on Sunday a slew of railway projects in the city including two subways built to replace level crossings 30 and 32 on the Tambaram-Chengalpet section. Only that the subways had already been inaugurated on Thursday by the AIADMK’s K N Ramachandran, Member of Parliament from Sriperumbudur constituency who will also be present at Sunday’s grand function.

The official invite sent out to media organizations by Southern Railway said the railway minister will “dedicate both the subways to the nation.”

Sources said Ramachandran had contacted Southern Railway a few days ago evincing interest in having a grand function where the subways would be inaugurated. However, railway officials did not want a separate function and the ‘dedication event’ found its way on to the list of projects scheduled for Sunday’s function.

On Thursday, sources said, Ramachandran and a few of his supporters as well as some residents of the area, conducted a function of his own, complete with lighting of the traditional lamp (‘kuthuvilakku’). Southern Railway had thrown open the subways a day earlier, the sources added.

In clarification, a senior official at the Southern railway headquarters when contacted said Goyal would only ‘dedicate to the nation’ the subways and it was different from the event organized by the MP which was “anyway not an official one.” When TOI contacted Ramachandran’s official mobile number, his son answered and said the MP was busy and would get back later.

The subway replacing LC 32 is near Perungalathur Railway Station, while the one replacing LC 30 connects the east and west side of Tambaram Railway Station.

QUICK ACTION: A file photo shows the two subways being inaugurated on Thursday