PM to gift Telangana Rs 7,000 cr worth of projects

HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Hyderabad for the second time in less than two months on January 19 to launch the prestigious Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Vande Bharat Express and inaugurate projects worth Rs 7,000 crore, including rail and road works, and address a public meeting at Parade Ground in Secunderabad.

Incidentally, Modi’s visit to the city comes just a day after Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is scheduled to hold a BRS meeting in Khammam to demonstrate Opposition unity and solidarity against the BJP and the PM.

Telangana BJP leaders have begun planning for the big day. Modi's visit to the city also comes at a time when the state party is ramping up its programmes in Telangana in order to take on the BRS in the Assembly elections later this year.

The Prime Minister will inaugurate the Vande Bharat Express, the country's eighth semi-high-speed modern train, which will run from Secunderabad to Visakhapatnam via Kazipet, Warangal, Khammam and Visakhapatnam, covering the distance in eight hours. It would reach Vijayawada in four to four-and-a-half hours.

The train will leave Secunderabad in the morning and return the same day, and will have advanced features such as reclining seats, Wi-Fi, GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system and automated doors, among others.

According to Union minister G. Kishan Reddy, after flagging off the Vande Bharat from, the PM will participate in the ground-breaking ceremony for the Rs 699 crore redevelopment of the Secunderabad railway station and lay the foundation stone for the Rs 521 crore periodic railway coach overhauling factory at Kazipet.

The PM will dedicate to the nation several buildings being constructed at IIT-Hyderabad at a cost of Rs 2,597 crore to accommodate 5,000 students.

As Modi's visit to the city on January 19 was officially confirmed, state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar visited the Secunderabad station with Dr K. Laxman, Rajya Sabha member and senior party leader, to discuss with the South Central Railway officials preparations for the various launches, inaugurations, and foundation stone-laying ceremonies that Modi will take part in, some of them remotely.

Sanjay addressed a meeting of the BJP leaders from the city and Ranga Reddy district, urging them to ensure Modi's public meeting was a massive success. "Elections can come anytime in the next eight months and all of us need to be geared up. Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao and the BRS government are going all out to make it difficult for us in the coming days, and I alone have been slapped with 11 non-bailable cases. Remember, this is a Chief Minister who stole Central funds sent to gram panchayats, and each of us should reach out to people and explain how the KCR government cheated them," he remarked.

Sanjay, the BJP MP from Karimnagar, urged the party workers to visit “every house in Bhagyanagar” and tell people about the funds the Modi government has given to the city. “Similar exercises must be taken up in all municipalities in the state,” he said.

Dr Laxman claimed that IT minister K.T. Rama Rao was spreading misinformation about the Modi government doing nothing for Telangana, entirely forgetting that it was the Centre that was reopening closed public sector units, such as the Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited. Instead of criticising the PM, the CM and his son should visit the PM’s programmes and ask Modi for more financial aid to propel development in Telangana, and demonstrate their commitment to the state's advancement.

Meanwhile, SCR officials stated that while the journey from Secunderabad to Vijayawada will take four to four-and-a-half hours, the distance between Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam would be covered in eight hours, as opposed to the current super-fast trains' 12-hour journey.

Each Vande Bharat trip would carry 1,128 passengers, with 72 seats in each chair car coach and an engine installed on both ends of the train.  The Vande Bharat Express trains offer centralised coach monitoring and controlling systems. Each train features 16 coaches, including two executive coaches equipped with rotating seats for maximum usage of space.