Goyal skips visit to Tirupati station

Tirupati: The sudden change in the schedule of Railway Minister Piyush Goyal due to which he skipped the visit to Tirupati Railway Station on Friday has raised many eyebrows. The railway authorities have prepared all plans and proposals to present before the Railway Minister.

The Divisional Railway Manager of Guntakal Division Vijay Prathap Singh held hectic parleys on Thursday with all the officials in Tirupati in view of the Minister’s proposed visit. They have checked every nook and corner of station to see that everything was in order.

Proposals worth Rs 480 crore redevelopment works of Tirupati Railway Station have been kept ready for the perusal of Piyush Goyal. By late evening on Thursday, the authorities have received a communication that Tirupati station visit has been cancelled and all the exercise made by the officials went in vein.

The change in the schedule of Railway Minister was seen more from the angle of recent attack on the convoy of BJP President Amit Shah at Alipiri during his visit to temple city and Tirumala immediately after the elections in Karnataka. Unconfirmed reports made it clear that to avoid any such embarrassment last minute changes have been made in his itinerary.

During the entire visit of Piyush Goyal, BJP leaders and Railway officials have been around the Minister. He reached Tirupati airport by a special aircraft on Thursday night at 10 pm and proceeded to Tirumala hills directly for overnight stay there. After having darshan of Lord Venkateswara and participated in the Abhishekam, he reached Tiruchanur to worship Goddess Padmavathi.

Then he reached Airport from Tiruchanur and left for Hyderabad where he attended a series of meetings including a review meeting on South Central Railway. However, sources said that railway officials have explained the redevelopment plan of Tirupati station briefly to the Minister at Tirumala itself for which he felt happy and asked them to go ahead.

The media was prepared to question the Minister on various pending railway projects to the State and could not get a chance. However, a senior journalist has presented a representation to the Minister at Tiruchanur requesting him to consider allowing free travel in trains for journalists in the State where they work and providing 75 per cent concession for travel to other states. The Minister said, he will consider it.