Warangal: POH dream inches closer to reality

Warangal: Finally, the long-awaited periodic over-hauling (POH) workshop at Kazipet, the big-ticket project of the Railways, appears to be a reality. It took almost four years after the Railways had proposed to set up a POH unit at Kazipet with an outlay of Rs 269 crore.

Although the Warangal Urban District administration had earmarked 160 acres near Ayodhyapuram village adjacent to Kazipet railway station belonging to the Endowments Department, the proposal didn't make headway with the State government failing to solve it all these years.

It appeared like that the dream of the POH unit would fizzle out like the coach factory in 1982 and wagon factory in 2010 at the proposal stage itself. If all had gone according to the plan, the unit would have started functioning from March 2019.

It may be noted here that during this standoff period, the Railway authorities reportedly sought clarification from the State government with respect to handing over land for the POH. The Railways also made it clear that based on the State government's response, it will take a call – either to move the project to another location or to utilise the sanctioned funds for its other purposes.

Against this backdrop, the district administration completed the acquisition of 150.05 acres and handed over the documents to the officials of the Railways on Wednesday in the presence of Minister for Panchayat Raj Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Chief Whip D Vinay Bhaskar, Mayor Gunda Prakash Rao and others.

Errabelli said: "Although the land required for the POH is 60 acres, we have handed over 150 acres to the Railways. Now, the onus is on the Centre to initiate the work on POH as early as possible. But we are not going to be satisfied with the POH. We will exert pressure on the Centre to sanction our age-old demand for a railway coach factory."