Chennai, Nov 16 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Finance Minister PTR Thiagarajan on Tuesday sought the support of the Union government for investment and infrastructure development in the state.

In a virtual conference with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, Thiagarajan urged the Union government for continuous supply of coal as well as revival packages for MSMEs in the state.

The meeting was convened by Sitharaman with Chief Ministers and Finance Ministers of various states to discuss steps to promote investments, infrastructure development and growth in the country.

Thiagarajan told Sitharaman that steps must be taken to ensure that there is an adequate and continuous supply of coal to the state.

He urged Sitharaman to help in the development of and access to supply from Chandrabila coal block in Odisha.

Thiagarajan urged the Centre to provide a viable wind energy policy for the Tamil Nadu government highlighting wind energy availability in the state. He informed the Union Minister that this would improve the renewable energy development in the state.

He urged the Central government to bring out a comprehensive package for the MSME sector which was badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the land transfer for Madurai airport to the Airports Authority of India was complete and appealed to the Centre to declare Madurai as an international airport to facilitate more flights and trade to the Madurai region in south Tamil Nadu.

He appreciated the Union government's national single window portal (Maadhyam) for obtaining Government of India-related clearances from various departments.

He recommended that aftercare services and grievance redressal mechanisms be included in the platform. Thiagarajan said the state would work in close cooperation with the Union government.

He said the Thoothukudu VOC port was of strategic importance to the country and has the potential to be a trans-shipment hub and emphasised that the master plan for development of the port should be taken up soon.