Telangana owes Rs 750 cr dues toward joint railway projects
Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay
Hyderabad: Telangana BJP on Wednesday charged that the TRS led State government is creating hurdles to the development of railways in the State. In a statement State BJP chief and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar said that the railways have taken up four railway projects in the State namely Akkanapet-Medak new line, Manoharabad-Kotapalli new line, Bhadrachalam-Kovvur new line and Hyderabad-Secunderabad Multi-Modal Transport System(MMTSPhase-II) on a cost-sharing basis with the State government.
However, a sum of Rs 703 crore is outstanding towards the share of the Telangana in Manoharabad-Kotapalli, Akkanapet-Medak and Hyderabad-Secunderabad Multi-Modal Transport System(MMTS-Phase-II) projects.
In turn, the progress of these projects has been getting delayed due to the State government failing to releases its share of funds. The details of the outstanding of the state's share in the railway projects have come to the fore following the Union Railway Minister Aswini Vaishnav giving a written reply to the questions raised by the Karimnagar MP.
Kumar said that the minister's reply shows that the railways have been made considerable progress in Telangana after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has come to power in 2014.
The centre has sanctioned Rs 10,206 crore during the period from 2014 to 2021, basic amenities, railway safety measures. During the current financial year of 2021-22, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 2,420 crore. IN all there are 2,495 km new railway lines worth Rs 30,351 crore progressing at different stages in Telangana. Of these, Rs 17,013 crore worth of nine new projects 1,071 Kms were included in the projects. Already, 155 km of new lines have comes into operation. Also, seven doubling projects of 1,424 km projects worth Rs 14,268 crore are underway. Of these, about 63 km have already come into operation.
During PM Modi's government at the Centre 177 km out of 321 km new lines, and 144 km of doubling projects were proposed.
When compared the railway projects during Modi's government has shown a sharp increase of 164 per cent in Telangana than the previous UPA tenure, he added.
He opined that the railways in the State might have witnessed more development had the TRS government extended its cooperation by timely payments of its share in the joint railway projects. It is high time that the TRS government take immediate steps to ensure that its dues are paid to ensure the development and progress of railway projects pick up momentum.