KTR writes to Vaishnaw ahead of Budget, seeks due share for Telangana

HYDERABAD: IT minister K. T. Rama Rao on Monday wrote a letter to Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in which he highlighted severe discrimination being meted out to Telangana state in budget allocation to railway projects.

He urged the railway minister to ensure adequate budgetary allocations to state railway projects in the upcoming Union Budget.

Rama Rao stated that the Centre was ignoring repeated pleas from the state government to sanction funds for several important ongoing and proposed projects. “The discrimination in the railway sector is more blatant and visible and the state has been getting a raw deal in every budget presented by the NDA government”, he said.

“The 13th Schedule of the AP State Reorganisation Act clearly states that “The Indian Railways shall, within six months from the appointed day, examine the feasibility of establishing a Rail Coach Factory in the
successor state of Telangana and improve rail connectivity in the state and take an expeditious decision thereon.” However, despite repeated appeals from the state government, the Centre has neither initiated any measure to establish a Rail Coach Factory in Kazipet nor granted any new major infrastructure project,” Rama Rao noted.

He said that it was appalling to note that in the past eight years, just a
little over 100 km of railway track has been laid in Telangana. The state has a paltry 3% of the total railway lines in our country out of which about 57% are single lanes. This lack of critical infra is depriving Telangana of new trains. It is disheartening to note that in the past eight years, South Central Railway has launched only one new train from the capital city - Lingampally –Vijayawada Intercity Express.

Rama Rao pointed out that the Modi government has not granted a single new railway line in Telangana in the past eight years. Even the progress of joint venture railway projects taken up with the state government is painfully slow. While the Centre has spent just Rs 1,100 crore on ongoing railway projects in the state, the state government has spent Rs 1,904 crore as its share. This clearly shows the lack of interest of the Centre in developing railway infrastructure in Telangana. Several projects, which were cleared by earlier governments were shelved by the present government. Many other projects for which survey reports were submitted long back have also not moved an inch.

He reminded that earlier, the South Central Railways used to convene a meeting of all Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs from the region and accept proposals for new railway projects and trains. Strangely, even that convention has been done away with this year.