The Central Government has returned Tamil Nadu’s Metro Rail proposals for Coimbatore and Madurai, citing five critical shortcomings in the project submissions. The decision delays the long-awaited met

New Delhi, Dec 08, 2025: The central government has cited five key reasons for returning Tamil Nadu’s metro rail proposals for Coimbatore and Madurai. The clarification came in response to a question raised in the Rajya Sabha regarding whether the Union government had rejected or declined to process the proposals.

Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Tokhan Sahu stated that metro rail projects in India require extensive evaluation under the Metro Rail Policy, 2017, and approval depends on the feasibility of the proposal and availability of financial resources.

The Minister confirmed that Tamil Nadu had submitted the Detailed Project Report (DPR) and the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) for metro projects in both Coimbatore and Madurai. However, the proposals were returned after examination.

The Centre has sent back Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore and Madurai Metro Rail proposals, highlighting five major reasons for non-approval.

Why Coimbatore Metro Plan Was Returned

According to the Centre, the Coimbatore metro proposal was returned for the following reasons:

1. Low average trip lengths and adequate current road speeds — meaning the metro is unlikely to attract a significant shift from road transport due to negligible time savings.

   
   

2. Population estimates used in the proposal are unrealistic — as commuters from the Local Planning Area (LPA), which is nearly five times larger than the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation area, are unlikely to depend on the metro system.

   
   

3. Ridership projection is excessively high — the DPR estimates 5.9 lakh daily passengers for a 34-km network, which the Centre said is unrealistic when compared to Chennai Metro Phase-1, which carries 4 lakh passengers on 55 km of operations despite serving a larger population.

   
   

4. Right of Way (RoW) constraints — multiple proposed station locations lack sufficient space for construction.

   
   

5. Metro not justified for Madurai under CMP — the CMP itself states that current ridership demand supports a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), which is more cost-effective for the city than a metro rail system.

   
   

India’s Metro Expansion Continues

India is rapidly expanding its urban mass transit network, with 1,083 km of metro and RRTS corridors operational across 25 cities. However, the Centre reiterated that metro rail projects are capital-intensive and approvals must align with feasibility parameters and public resource considerations.