By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala legislator P.J. Joseph Friday reiterated the demand for a high-speed rail passenger corridor between Mumbai and Kanyakumari for the development of the entire western coastal region.
“The central government has already cleared the setting up of a high-speed rail freight corridor connecting Mumbai to Delhi at a cost of Rs.500 billion. The government should convert it into a passenger corridor and extend it to Kanyakumari,” said Joseph, a former minister and chairperson of the Kerala Congress (Joseph), an ally of the Communist-led government here.
Joseph started a campaign trip from Mumbai Jan 12 to press for the inclusion of the project in this year’s budget. He ended his trip Thursday at the Vivekananda Rock memorial at Kanyakumari.
“The western sector has been neglected in both rail and road development and this new rail corridor will change the tourism sector in Goa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Funds are not a problem; financial institutions are queuing up to support infrastructure projects,” Joseph said.
Recently, nearly 40 legislators from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka signed a memorandum and submitted it to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to demand the rail corridor.