Rly budget derails AP, Telangana hopes

Describing as constrained the Railway budget presented by Rail Minister Sandananda Gowda in the Lok Sabha, YSR Congress party said today the Centre failed to incorporate the Railway-department related assurances made in the 13th Schedule of the AP State Reorganization Bill, 2014 that guided the division of the erstwhile united AP.

Speaking to reporters in Hyderabad, Party senior leader D.A. Somayajulu said the Centre made several promises to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh with regard to railway projects on the eve of division of the state. 

“Apart from the assurance of granting a new railway division to AP and a coach factory to Telangana, the Centre promised to create a rapid rail connectivity system from the new capital city of AP to Hyderabad and other important towns in Telangana, grant metro rail projects for the Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali urban development area and for Visakhapatnam city,” Somayajulu said, adding that there was unfortunately no mention of these projects in the rail budget.

“No one knows when these projects will be taken up and implemented,” he remarked and stated: “The rail minister said a committee has been set up to report on the completion of pending projects in both AP and Telangana. So the completion of the projects is not time-bound.” 

On the whole, the budget did not generate any interest to the common public as the Centre raised the rail fares by 14.5 per cent ahead of the budget, he remarked.

-Sakshipost