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All eyes on pending projects
With the Railway budget to be introduced in Lok Sabha in the last week of this month, expectations are high over allocation of funds for three pending projects in Godavari districts.
Kakinada: With the Railway budget to be introduced in Lok Sabha in the last week of this month, expectations are high over allocation of funds for three pending projects in Godavari districts.
Kakinada - Pithapuram railway line (22 kms), Kotipalli – Amalapuram - Narasapur line (60 kms) and Kovvur – Kothagudem line (160 kms) have been long pending in the districts. Though, the Kakinada - Pithapuram line was cleared in the year 1998 during the previous NDA regime when U V Krishnam Raju was MP from Kakinada, it has been barely kept alive by sanctioning token amounts.
The project which was cleared with an estimated cost of Rs 40 crore has now escalated four times. Current estimates put the cost for one kilometre of line at Rs 7 core. Experts opine that if necessary funds are allocated to the project, it would be a fitting tribute to Late S S Krishnaji, who strived for the project all his life.
Similar fate haunts Kotipalli – Narsapur line. Proposed in 2001, the project is going on a pace slower than that of snail, as no more than token amounts were sanctioned. With four rail bridges to be constructed, the project cost escalated from Rs 7 crore per kilometre to Rs 25 crore per kilometre.
However, MP Dr P Ravindra Babu has high hopes that the project will get sufficient funds to take off, despite humongous escalation of costs. The 160 kilometre long Kovvur – Kothagudem line, which was green lighted fairly recently, is of paramount importance to the South Central Railway.
When completed, not only it decreases the distance between Rajahmundry and Hyderanad by 80 kilometres but also eases traffic in the route. Besides this the rail project will cover tribal areas of Jangareddygudem, Koyyalagudem in West Godavari on route to Kothagudem encircling coal belt in Telangana.
Kakinada MP and TDP parliamentary party leader Thota Venkata Narasimham on Wednesday exuded confidence over the release of necessary funds for grounding the project. “The Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu assured me,” he asserted.
