'I'm ready to meet you with my team': TN CM Stalin writes to PM Modi regarding Coimbatore, Madurai metro projects

Chennai: Building metro rail networks in Coimbatore and Madurai have become the latest flashpoint between the DMK dispensation in Tamil Nadu and the BJP-led Union Government. 

After DMK men hit the streets in Coimbatore and Madurai against the Centre returning DPRs for the projects, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to reconsider the decision and allow the two cities to experience the modern transport system. 

Madurai is a temple town that attracts millions of tourists in a year, and Coimbatore is one of the critical engines that fuel Tamil Nadu’s growth. 

A row kicked up earlier this week after the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs “returned” the DPRs of Madurai and Coimbatore metro, saying the cities do not meet the 20 lakh population criteria under the National Metro Rail Policy, 2017.  

‘DMK’s political plan’

The DMK was quick to term Centre’s action as a “disgraceful approach” and “distortion of federal principles” with Stalin even suggesting that Tamil Nadu was being denied metro networks because the state voted for the DMK in 2021 and overwhelmingly rejected the BJP and AIADMK in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

After Union Minister Manohar Lal said the DPRs had many discrepancies, Stalin has asked the Department of Special Initiatives to submit detailed justifications on the issues raised by MoHUA. 

“I urge you to instruct MoHUA to review the decision. If necessary, I am ready to meet you at New Delhi with my team to explain the issues in detail. Since these two projects involve the aspirations of the industrial and cultural hubs of Tamil Nadu, I look forward to your personal intervention in this issue,” Stalin told the Prime Minister. 

DMK views the Centre’s move as an opportunity to politically target the BJP and brand the saffron party as “anti-Tamil Nadu” to further fuel its “Tamil Nadu versus Delhi (Centre/BJP)” narrative for the 2026 assembly polls. The DMK did make the Centre’s delay in sanctioning Phase-II of the Chennai Metro an election issue in 2024 polls. 

The two governments are already at loggerheads over the implementation of the three-language formula under the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 and many other issues. 

‘Metro is necessary’

In his letter, Stalin said Tamil Nadu, being the most urbanised State in the country with a high per-capita private vehicle ownership, needs high-capacity public transport alternatives in all its large growth engine cities.

He said the population of Coimbatore LPA area had exceeded 2 million way back in 2011 itself and in the case of Madurai too, the expected population is likely to exceed it now and pointed out that if the two million criteria had been applied uniformly, many metros in Tier-II cities like Agra, Indore and Patna may not have materialised. 

“The selective application of this criterion to our proposal has created an impression of discrimination against our cities and the Union Government needs to dispel it by treating our cities on par with the cities mentioned above,” Stalin said. 

The DPR studies have made subsequent independent assessments of traffic projections, which justified the need for Metro Rail corridors, Stalin said and complained that these factors have not been adequately taken into consideration.

“We have been offering compensation which meets the expectations of the land owners in our current project and we will ensure that the availability of land will not be a hindrance for the proposed projects at Coimbatore and Madurai cities,” the Chief Minister said.

Politicisation of metro in Tamil Nadu

Metro networks in the state had been a political issue in the past as well. While the AIADMK under J Jayalalithaa proposed a monorail for the city despite opposition from experts, the DMK got the project approved under the UPA-I and launched work in 2009. Jayalalithaa had publicly said she had no choice but to implement the project despite her unwillingness since viaducts have already been constructed. 

The state government had prepared DPRs that proposed two corridors for Coimbatore and one for Madurai and sent them to the Union Government for approval since metro projects are implemented by both governments.

In a letter sent to the state government on November 14, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said both cities don’t qualify for metro networks and asked the administration here to find suitable modes of transport.

The communication said Madurai's population was 15 lakh and Coimbatore (15.84 lakh) as per the 2011 Census. Though the population in both cities are above 20 lakh in 2025, the Centre counts the 2011 population figure as the decadal Census has not been conducted since 2020.