Coimbatore : Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari today said that he will make efforts to implement the Chennai-Salem 8-lane green corridor project after holding discussions with the farmers in the region .

“The Chennai-Salem green corridor is an important development project for the region, and higher rates will be provided for the farmers, whose land is acquired,” Gadkari said while campaigning for the AIADMK candidate Saravanan in Salem, 150 kms from here.

Stating that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edapadi K Palaniswami was in discussion with him with regard to the project, Gadkari said that the project will be implemented after discussion with the farmers.

The government has announced higher rates as compensation for the land, but the farmers approached the court and obtained stay, he said adding that efforts will be taken to implement the project after discussing with the farmers in the region.

The water problem was a major one in Tamil Nadu, like States of Maharashra, Karnataka, Telangana, Chattigargh and Jharkhand, he said adding that on one side there was acute shortage of water and on the other there was surplus water being wasted and flowing into sea, as happens with regard to Godavari river, where 1,100 TMC water was going into the sea.

As such, the linking of Godavari and Cauvery will get enough water to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, thus ending the age old water problem, he said.

Gadkari said that the project will cost about Rs 60,000 crore and a detailed report is under preparationl and Palanisamy was also keen to implement the project.

The first thing after NDA returned to power will be to link the Godavari-Cauvery and solve the water problem of Tamil Nadu, he said.

S Ramdoss founder leader of PMK, which had opposed the green corridor project and approached the Court, who was present said that he was confident of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi returning to power.

He came down heavily on both Congress and DMK manifesto and said Congress which ruled over 60 years had failed to remove poverty and now promising to remove it.

The Godavari-Cauvery project was a dream project of Palanisami and once implemented Tamil Nadu will get 200 MC of water.

Later in the evening, speaking in Coimbatore, Gadkari said that the BJP government has not not neglected Tamil Nadu and Rs 7.50 lakh crore were allocated to the State only from his ministry.

Seeking votes for BJP candidate C P Radhakrishnan, Gadkari said that the politics in the 21st century was politics for development. and there was the need to remove unemployment and poverty.