Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast region and Telangana BJP president G. Kishan Reddy announced that the Centre had cleared new railway lines to connect all the 33 districts of Telangana and augment the existing network at an estimated cost of ₹83,543 crore for 5,239 km.
“Despite non-cooperation, indifference and neglect shown by the State government towards developing public transport and providing land for the projects, which had stalled work across 700 km of railway lines last year alone, the Narendra Modi government has decided to go ahead with the projects bearing all the costs to benefit Telangana,” he said at a press conference on Sunday.
The Minister said that urban areas of more than one lakh population, pilgrim centres, mines, cement plants and Assembly constituencies were going to be connected under the 30 projects cleared by the Centre, with 15 being new lines and 15 others either doubling (eight), tripling (three) or quadrupling (four) of the existing lines, including ongoing works.
Final Location Surveys (FLS) had commenced and the detailed project reports will follow once they are through as the Prime Minister’s Office is monitoring the progress of the works, he claimed.
Among the new lines are:
₹5,706 crore, 317 km Adilabad to Patancheru along Nirmal, Balkonda, Armoor, Bodhan, Banswada, Nizampet and Sangareddy; ₹5,330 crore, 296 km Warangal to Gadwal along Mahabubabad, Dornakal, Paleru, Suryapet, Nalgonda, Kalwakurthy, Nagarkurnool, and Wanaparthy.
₹4,104 crore, 228 km Kacheguda to Jaggayyapeta along Rangareddy, Chityal, Nakrekal, Munugodu, Suryapet and connecting Hyderabad to Vijayawada; ₹1,116 crore, 62 km Karimnagar-Hasanparthy line along Manakoderu and Huzurabad; ₹1,152 crore, 64 km Bhupalapally-Kazipet line giving connectivity to pilgrims going to the Samakka-Sarakka temple; ₹2,196 crore, 122 km Vikarabad-Krishna along Parigi, Kondangal, Husnabad, Makthal, and Narayanpet.
MMTS-Phase II project till Yadadri of about ₹980 crore for 40 km is to be taken up, including quadrupling of Ghatkesar to Vangapalli. Also, ₹3,600 crore for 200 km Manuguru-Ramagundam; ₹2,160 crore for 120 km Dornakal-Miryalguda; ₹3,592 for 186 km Bhadrachalam-Malkangiri; ₹1,350 crore for 75 km Tandur-Zaheerabad; ₹1,278 crore for 71 km Adilabad - Ghadchandur, ₹3,240 crore for 180 km Kothagudem-Kirandole and ₹2,340 crore for 135 km Bhodan-Latur.
Doubling works: Dornakal-Bhadrachalam road, 1,157 Motumari-Vishnupuram, Nizamabad-Peddapalli, Vikarabad-Parli Vaidyanath, Moula Ali-Sanathnagar, Mudkhed-Adilabad-Pipamlalkutta.
Tripling works - Dornakal-Manuguru Secunderabad-Kazipet, Secunderabad-Wadi and quadrupling - Kazipet-Secunderabad, Kazipet-Balharshah, Kazipet-Vijayawada and Secunderabad-Wadi.
55 km rly line
Mr. Reddy said that the Modi government has ensured 55 km of railway line is constructed in the last nine years where it was just 17 km at a cost of ₹10,912 crore under the Congress governments till 2014. Already ₹4,686 Mudhkhe-Medchal, Mahabubnagar-Dhone, ₹2,854 crore Guntur-Bibinagar were cleared while all major stations are being redeveloped at a considerable cost.
The Minister urged the government to help in land acquisition for the above-mentioned projects as well as the proposed regional ring road rail project (₹12,408 crore 564 km) held up due to the same reasons. Land has also been sought for expansion and approach roads at Cherlapalli, Umdanagar and Secunderabad stations but there has been no response, he added.
