`There is some difficulty in sanctioning electrification projects as power is supplied at the rate of Rs 3 a unit here while the NTPC supplied power at the rate of Rs 1.25 a unit to the electricity board', he said dedicating the Rs 500 crore Tambaram-Tiruchirappalli broad gauge line at a function held at suburban Tambaram amidst rain.

Union Power Minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi, besides Nitish Kumar, jointly flagged off the inaugural special train. A new broad gauge line between Chennai beach and Tambaram of 29 kms length was commissioned for traffic in April 1995. The 311 km route from Tambaram to Tiruchirappalli comprises a new 133 km long broad gauge line between Tambaram andVillupuram and conversion of the existing 178 km metre gauge line into broad gauge from Villupuram to Tiruchirappalli.

Nitish Kumar said the new line, which fulfilled a long felt dream of the people of this area, would lead to a spurt in industrial activities in the region besides acting as a catalyst for its economic development.

Referring to a plea earlier made by former minister of state for petroleum, T R Baalu, for connecting Chennai central with Chennai Egmore (just one km) by a railway structure so that trains from north, west and east could directly go to southern Tamil Nadu via the new line, Nitish said the railways would examine the possibility of this proposal if the state government came forward to give the necessary lands.

The minister listed a number of projects which had been sanctioned for Tamil Nadu and which were in the pipeline. Electrification between Tambaram and Chengalpattu (about 30 kms) stations and between Chengalpattu and Arakkonam would be taken up soon and the rest would beundertaken in phases.

Chief Minister Karunanidhi, the chief guest at the function, regretted that out of a total of 62,000 km of rail route in the country, only a little over 4000 km rail route was in Tamil Nadu. The southern region was being `ignored and sidelined' by the railway ministry not only now but for over the past five decades. In the past 17 years, new rail lines for a length of only 288 km were added in the state, which was not commensurate with the development in the road sector.

Karunanidhi said it was rather a sheer coincidence that only those who hailed from Bihar had become railway ministers and naturally many projects went to that state. `One state should not be ignored at the cost of another'.

Karunanidhi said his government was prepared to give the necessary land for putting up a railway structure between Chennai central and Egmore. He also promised to consider `sympathetically' the minister's demand for reducing the tariff of power supplied to railways after consulting the UnionPower Minister and the state electricity minister.