The Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, has promised that as per the agreement between the state and the Indian Railways, the government will release its share of funds for all pending railway projects in the state.
He appealed to all MPs from the state to work for getting more and more railway projects and fight unitedly to get justice to state.
The CM was speaking at a meeting convened on railway projects with MPs at Jubilee Hall on Thursday.
He said that the Union minister for railways, Mr Dinesh Trivedi, will be coming to Hyderabad to discuss about pending and new railway projects and wanted a comprehensive blueprint about pending, ongoing and new railway projects to present the state’s case.
“We can then clearly list out pending and new projects before the minister and take it up further at Delhi too,” he added. The Chief Minister said that all problems relating to railway projects and trains should be sorted out for the overall benefit of the state. The general manager, South Central Railway, Mr Asthana, made a detailed presentation on the status of the various railway projects already taken up.
The Union minister of state for human resources, Ms Purandareswari, transport minister Botsa Satyanarayana, R&B minister D. Prasada Rao, major irrigation minister P. Sudarshan Reddy, general manager of South Central Railway, Mr Asthana attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam MPs alleged that the state got a raw deal with regard to funding of railway projects in every budget resulting in slow pace of work. They boycotted the state MPs meeting conveyed by the Chief Minister.
“AP always got a raw deal in every railway budget. There are 13 ongoing projects requiring Rs 7,000 crore. Another Rs 15,000 crore for new projects have been proposed,” Mr Nama Nageshwara Rao said. He added, “The Centre has released a meagre Rs 100 crore to Rs 150 crore annually to the railway projects in the state.”
