Railway Budget: Telangana gets new terminal at Cherlapally

Hyderabad: Telangana got almost all the projects it wished for, including a rail terminal at Cherlapally on the city outskirts and  extension of the MMTS till Raigir, near the temple town of Yadadri.

If a developer offers to build it, the city can get another terminal at Vattinagulapalli. The development of the terminal at Cherlapally will be taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 80 crore.

The proposal for the Cherlapally terminal had been pending for years. It will help decongest the existing three stations, mainly Secunderabad. The railway ministry is intending to partner with the TS government to develop the suburban section.

Save for a separate railway zone, Andhra Pradesh has been sanctioned a slew of projects including the much-needed line connecting Amaravati capital city, and allocated money for ongoing projects,

The railway Budget has sanctioned a survey for the 67-km line between Vijaya-wada and Guntur via Amaravati. Railway ministry Suresh Prabhu also sanctioned a survey for a rail line from laying line Chittoor to Kuppam, the Assembly segment represented by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

The rail zone apart, the Centre has considered most of the requests made by Mr Naidu. The Budget sanctioned the doubling of the 443-km track between Guntur, Guntakal and Dharmavaram at an estimated cost of Rs 4,000 crore. The AP government had agreed to pay 50 per cent of the cost and asked the Railway Board to fast-track project.

The doubling of the line will bring down the travel time between teh AP capital and Rayalaseema from 9 hours to less than five. AP has also requested the Railways to consider introducing non-stop trains between the Amaravati and Rayalaseema.

Other projects sanctioned for AP for augmentation of the MEMU rake maintenance facility at Rajahmundry at a cost of Rs 7.2 crore, and development of the Tiruchanur railway station (conversion of C class to B class station) to decongest Tirupati railway station at a cost of Rs 10 crore. Also, the Tirupati station would be modernised into a world class station.

AP has also got the East Coast dedicated freight corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada, which would get innovative financing including PPP.
Centre has sanctioned Rs 180 crore for the Nadikudi-Srikalahasthi project.

Protests break out in Vizag
North Andhra reacted with anger after the Railway Budget did not announce a separate zone with headquarters in Vizag, a longstanding demand.

Dharnas and protests were held at various parts of the city. Left parties staged protests at the railway station and shouted slogans against the Centre. The Waltair division did get several projects, but the local wishlist remained unfulfilled.