Rail Budget 2015: More funds for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh projects
Hyderabad: The Union Railway Budget presented by railway minister Suresh Prabhu has given a sizeable proportion of funds to long-pending projects in both the new states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The South Central Railway got Rs 2,768 crore allocations for infrastructure development in the Budget for 2015-16, which is Rs 500 crore more than the previous year.
Among passenger amenities, five new works have been sanctioned at the cost of Rs 29 crore to the South Central Railway Zone and 32 per cent traffic facilities have been allotted for the zone.
The railway minister said details of new trains will be announced at a later date.
A major demand of Telangana state had been regarding the line projects. The Union Railway minister on Thursday allocated Rs 141 crore for the Peddapalli-Karimnagar-Nizamabad project, Rs 20 crore for the Manoharabad-Kotapalli line and Rs 1,200 crore for the new Secunderabad-Mahbubnagar double lining project.
Also, Rs 150 crore has been allocated for the Manchariyal-Peddam-pet line and Rs 45 crore for the Kazipet-Ballarsha triple lining project. The Secunderabad station might also soon have malls and shopping complexes coming up at the ‘air space’ of the station, including above the train lines. The SCR is hopeful of getting Secunderabad on the list of 10 stations that are to be selected for the purpose and a proposal in this regard has been sent. The Secunderabad-Mahbubnagar doubling project was approved with a cost of Rs 1,200 crore, however, allocation in the present Budget is Rs Rs 27.44 crore.
Mahbubnagar MP A.P. Jitender Reddy had made attempts to get the project approved and was successful. Meanwhile, talking about MMTS phase II, the SCR general manager said that the project had no dearth of funds but was stuck due to problems with the contract. “The problem has been sorted out and the project is now proceeding in full swing,” he said.
Speaking about the proposal to change the name of AP Express to Telangana Express, the official said that it had been sent to the Board. Though, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has not officially reacted to the Rail Budget, the CMO sources said the CM is content with what the state had got, though he had expected more since TS is a new State.
