India, Nov. 20 -- Union urban affairs minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday rejected Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin's accusation that the Union government "denied" Metro rail to Coimbatore and Madurai.

In a post on X, Khattar said Stalin had "chosen to politicise" the issue and ignored the "magnanimous sanction" last year to the Rs.63,246 crore Chennai Metro Phase II, the largest ever such project approved. He added that the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for Coimbatore and Madurai were returned on November 14.

Khattar said the DPRs did not comply with essential norms of the Metro Rail Policy, 2017, mandating a population threshold of two million in the urban agglomeration. "Metro systems are costly infrastructure and have to b...