Guntakal fails to find place in rail Budget
On an average, 120 trains pass through the station.
Anantapur: The Guntakal Railway Division, a crucial junction and one of the top revenue spinners of the South Central Railway, has been neglected in every way. While leaders from coastal areas mounted pressure on the Centre to set up a zonal headquarters in Vizag, the people of Rayalaseema have long been dreaming of a railway zone headquarters at Guntakal. Although Guntakal emerged as an important junction connecting trains to Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bengaluru, Mumbai and other cities, it was not made a priority during the previous budgets, and so facilities have not improved.
“We have repeatedly been raising our voice, seeking that justice be meted out to the backward region by at least sanctioning a zonal headquarters at Guntakal,” CPI district unit secretary Mr Jagadish commented. He alleged that the Centre had neglected the backward region in all aspects, including railways. On an average, 120 trains pass through Guntakal Division every day, in addition to 40 special trains a week.The station contributes '338 crore in revenue to the department from passenger trains, and '200 crore from goods trains.
So far, most of the sanctioned work at the Division has proceeded at snail’s pace. A decade long-pending work of railway line between Tumkur- Rayadurg is going on for the past five years. Currently, work on the track has been completed from Kalyanadurgam to Rayadurgam, and the train is operated between these stations. The remaining work towards Tumkur, connecting Kamnbadur, Pavagada, Madakasira and Madhugiri, is still in progress. Only 50 km of track-laying, out of the total 202 km has been completed so far. In the last budget, the centre sanctioned a new line between Hindupur and Chitradurga.
“We hope the survey will be completed soon, to connect the two big business centres of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka”, said MLC Gundumala Thippeswamy. Earlier, former Railway Minister Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy had proposed a coach repair unit in Kurnool, at a cost of Rs 110 crore. The state government acquired the land and handed over it to the railways, but no progress on the setup of the unit has been witnessed for the past three years.