CM unhappy at ‘raw deal’ for state in Railways

Hyderabad, Aug 21:

The Chief Minister, Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, on Friday conveyed his unhappiness to the Union Minister of State for Railways, K H Muniyappa, over the raw deal the state has received in the 2009-10 railway budget.

At a meeting convened at Jubilee Hall to discuss the pending railway projects in the state, the Chief Minister urged Muniyappa to clear the Multi-Modal Transport System (MMTS) Phase –II linking the State capital to the international airport at Shamshabad.

He said the budget proposed no new projects for the state except a superfast train between Visakhaptnam and Mumbai and development of Secunderabad and Tirupati railway stations to the international standards.

He urged the Minister to introduce special trains from Hyderabad to Ajmeer and Hyderabad to Nagpur. He also urged the minister to run more trains between Nellore-Tirupathi-Chennai and Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali.

He requested the minister to sanction Kadapa- Bangalore line, which will ensure 18 per cent returns.

He urged the Minister develop Eluru, Bhimavaram, Kadapa, Narsapuram, Peddapalli, Repalle, Machilipatnam, nidadovulu, Tadepalligudem and Warangal as model stations. He asked the minister to extend the Tungabhadra Express upto Kadapa and Kachiguda-Egmore Express to Madurai.

He appealed to the minister to construct multi functional complexes in Guntur, Anantapur and Kadapa.

In the budget, the South Central Railway has been allocated a budgetary outlay of Rs 3092.90 crore, out of which Rs.185.00 crore is for new railway lines, Rs.131 crore for gauge conversion, Rs.25 crore for doubling of railway lines and Rs.118.53 crore for passenger amenities. All MPs from the state also participated in the meeting.