Telangana government to share cost of new rail lines

Hyderabad: The TS government is ready to bear 51 per cent of the total cost for laying a new rail line between Secunderabad and Zaheerabad, a distance of nearly 70 km.

TS is also willing to share the cost of a 184-km new rail line between Gadwal and Macherla and wants the Railway Ministry to put these two projects on the fast track and complete them as early as possible.

South Central Railway officials said that the Railway Ministry has in principle agreed to take up the two projects as a joint venture with the TS government.

The Railway Ministry and TS government have already signed a MoU for taking up priority rail projects under JV. While Secunderabad-Zaheerabad rail line is estimated to cost Rs 457 crore, the Gadwal-Macherla line will require over Rs 800 crore.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had taken up the two lines with Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu when the latter had called on him in January, last year.

“Both these new rail lines also find a mention in the Rail Budget-2016. While the Secunderabad-Zaheerabad line is planned to be laid via Vattinagulapalli, Sangareddy and Kohir, the Gadwal-Macherla line will take off from Arepalli near Gadwal and run via Nagarkurnool, Indrakallu, Kalwakurthy, Vanguru, Devarakonda, and joins Thirumalagiri on the already sanctioned Nalgonda-Macherla line,” said a senior SCR official.

The new Secunderabad-Zaheerabad line will bring down travel time by more than half from the three hours now, while the Gadwal-Macherla line is important as it passes through backward Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar districts.