A museum to commemorate the visit of Swami Vivekananda to this temple town on his return from Chicago World Parliament of Religions would be built at the Railway Station, Suresh Prabhu said.
Suresh Prabhu speaks after dedicating a host of passenger amenities here and also at the Thanjavur and Madurai Railway Station through a video conference.
A museum commemorating the visit of Swami Vivekananda to this temple town on his return from Chicago World Parliament of Religions would be built at the Railway station here, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said today. Vivekananda gave the message “Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is achieved” after returning to India from Chicago in 1897, he said in commemoration of it the Railways would construct the museum, he said.
Vivekananda came by ship from the US to Colombo in Sri Lanka and then reached Pamban near Rameswaram. In route to Chennai, he visited Kumbakonam.
The passenger amenities inaugurated by Prabhu includes Emergency Medical centre for ensuring the safety of passengers during exigencies, waiting halls at Thanjavur and two lifts for passengers at Madurai Junction.
Prabhu also paid tributes to the late chief minister, Jayalalithaa saying that she was a great leader and her death is a great loss to the country.
He is the first Railway Minister to visit Kumbakonam station. He decided not to confine himself to the national capital only.
“Delhi is not the entire India and Chennai is not entire Tamil Nadu. We have to go to people to understand the problems. In our country, there are 7-8 lakhs villages and we aim to go and meet as many people as possible,” he said.
Lifts and escalators were only available at the airports. Now they will be provided at the railway stations as well.
He also stated that he is willing to work with the people of Tamil Nadu and would like to address their problems though there were limitations for Railways to meet the demands.
“The road traffic is growing and the low-cost air traffic is growing. With all limitations, we are trying to solve problems and we have started on the path of solving them,” he said.
He was the only minister depending on the Finance Ministry for the funds, Prabhu said that he is trying to mobilise funds from the external sources.
In the 2017-18 budget, provision to Tamil Nadu for railway projects had been more than doubled to Rs 2,300 crore, he said adding last year Rs 33 crore was earmarked for passenger amenities.
Earlier, State Agriculture Minister R Doraikannu, local MLAs and MPs presented a memorandum to the Railway Minister on various pending demands.
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