The Tamil Nadu government has raised concerns over what it calls an “uneven application” of the Centre’s Metro Rail Policy, after the Union government rejected Metro proposals for Madurai and Coimbatore, citing a population threshold of 20 lakh.

While the Union government maintains that the 2017 policy restricts Metro systems to larger cities, Tamil Nadu officials questioned why similarly sized or smaller cities in other states secured approvals. 

Government sources noted that although Coimbatore’s Municipal Corporation population was only 15.84 lakh as per the 2011 Census, its larger planning area crossed 23.5 lakh.

Madurai’s core city population stood at 10.20 lakh, and its urban agglomeration reached 14.7 lakh—still below the benchmark.

Tamil Nadu officials argued that the Centre had cleared Metro projects for Agra (1.6 million), Patna (1.7 million), and Bhopal (1.88 million), all of which fall short of the cited population requirement.

They also pointed out the approval granted to non-capital Tier II cities such as Kanpur, Nagpur, Pune, Indore, and Surat.

The state has stated that if population norms were relaxed elsewhere, Tamil Nadu’s fast-growing industrial hubs deserve similar consideration—especially as both Coimbatore and Madurai show significantly higher growth rates than several cities that have received clearance.

Officials said the rejection highlights a broader issue of inconsistent policy implementation and urged the Centre to apply the same standards across states.