Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the foundations for the redevelopment of five railway stations in the state of Tamil Nadu.
The stations the will benefit from the plans are Chennai Egmore, Rameswaram, Madurai, Katpadi and Kanyakumari. They will be redeveloped with an investment of around Rs18bn ($232m).
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the redevelopment project aims to improve passenger experience by offering modern amenities.
The Prime Minister announced an investment of Rs29.6bn ($381.5m) dedicated to the five rail projects.
The projects include the 75km-long Madurai-Teni, which is a railway gauge conversion project, developed with an investment of Rs5bn ($64.4m).
The Madurai-Teni line is anticipated to improve tourism in the region.
With a cost of more than Rs5.9bn ($76m), the 30km-long third railway line between Tambaram and Chengalpattu will help operate more suburban services.
The 115km-long Ennore-Chengalpattu section entailed an investment of Rs8.5bn ($109m) while the 271km-long Thiruvallur-Bengaluru section of the ETB PNMT natural gas pipeline cost Rs9.1bn ($117m).
Both will enable the delivery of natural gas to consumers and industries in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Recently, the Indian Railway Ministry granted Rs83.4m ($1.07m) for the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) to work on hyperloop technology.
Utilising the capital, IIT Madras plans to open a centre of excellence for Hyperloop technology.
