Warangal: Politics leaves 'railway coach' behind

Warangal: Ahead of the Union Budget 2022-23, understandably the age-old demand for the Railway coach factory in Kazipet has once again to fore. The proposal to establish Railway coach factory in Kazipet dates back to 1982. However, the then Congress government allotted it to Kapurtala in Punjab due to political compulsions. Hopes revived again when the then Minister for Railways Mamata Banerjee sanctioned a wagon factory on a public-private partnership (PPP) and allocated Rs 15 crore in the Railway Budget of 2010-11. But, the proposal never turned into a reality due to legal tangles in land acquisition.

Later, the Narendra Modi government had sanctioned a periodic overhauling (POH) unit with an estimated cost of Rs 480 crore in Kazipet in 2016. The inordinate delay in land acquisition kept the project on hold. Since then it has become a political issue between the TRS and the BJP. Finally, the State Government was able to acquire land and it now shifted the onus on to BJP to further the POH proposal.

"TRS people's representatives especially Warangal West MLA D Vinay Bhaskar have been using the issue whenever they sense fall in their party's graph. The TRS MPs failed to exert pressure on the Centre when the latter expressed that there was no chance of setting up of a railway coach factory in Kazipet as the existing capacity and planned augmentation of capacities in existing factories are sufficient to meet the Railways' requirement," Warangal DCC president Naini Rajender Reddy said.

"Instead of mudslinging at the TRS government, the BJP leaders should lobby with their high command in Delhi for realising coach factory and POH," Vinay Bhaskar said.

Stating that the TRS leaders were banking on blame game tactics, BJP Hanumakonda district president Rao Padma said, "The Centre will move forward according to the feasibility study. Instead of accusing the BJP, the TRS leaders should ask their party working president KT Rama Rao why he had not referred Kazipet when the Medha Servo wanted to establish a metro coach manufacturing facility at Kondakal in Rangareddy district."

"The timing of the demand has a lot to do with the current political situation in the State with both the TRS and the BJP trying for one-upmanship. Instead of choosing the Railway projects' issue, the political parties should constantly pursue the Centre until they achieve the desired results. The parties also should focus on establishing a new railway division in the SCR with Kazipet as its headquarters," Praja Vedika, a forum for the betterment of the society, State chairman, Thirunahari Seshu said.