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Andhra Pradesh’s high hopes dashed
The Railway Budget of Suresh Prabhu comes as a disappointment for the AP Government which was expecting the Union Minister to shower his largesse on it in several forms. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had very high hopes on his ally that Amaravati would get all rail connectivity in thisbudget itself.
New Delhi: The Railway Budget of Suresh Prabhu comes as a disappointment for the AP Government which was expecting the Union Minister to shower his largesse on it in several forms. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had very high hopes on his ally that Amaravati would get all rail connectivity in thisbudget itself.
He sought separate railway tracks connecting Amaravati with Guntur and Vijayawada and also Hyderabad and Benguluru. Of course, his biggest dream was that of Vizag zone announcement. The two did not happen. The reason is simple. A new railway zone for AP “is a political decision at the highest level and not an administrative one” has always been the answer of the Railway authorities.
As for Amaravati connectivity or any other new project, Naidu had entered into a MoU with the Ministry of Railways for the creation of a Joint Venture to develop railway projects under a PPP model. All that Naidu got to do now is to rope in the services of some Singapore company to draw a plan for Amaravati connectivity and he would get it in a jiffy railway, ministry sources say.
AP had also sought like Guntur-Guntakal track doubling upto Dhone, a third track between Ongole-Naidupet, doubling of Renigunta-Dhone, Kakinada-Pithapuram, Kotipalli- Narsapuram, Gooty-Dharmavaram, Nadikudi-Srikalahasti and Singarayakonda-Kanigiri.
The other requests made by AP government were handing over the Old Bridge in Rajamahendravaram to the state government. Railway line connecting Amravati- Vijayawada- Guntur. To take a decision on the construction of the third railway line connecting Vizag-Chennai and doubling works between Guntur-Guntakal. But there is no mention about any of these projects in the budget.
It may recalled that there are at least Rs 9,000 crore railway works in the State in which both the State and the Centre are equal partners. However, when it comes to annual allocations, these works had always received only a pittance leading to disappointment for the State.
The Kadapa-Benguluru railway line was estimated to cost Rs 1,000 crore and the allocation had been only Rs 189.95 crore. Similarly, the Nadikudi-Srikalahasti railway line is to cost Rs 1,314 crore but it has got only Rs 6 crore. The state government had already allotted Rs 289 crore for land acquisition in Guntur and Nellore districts.
Even the allocations made for some of the railway lines is very meager Kotipalli-Narsapur railway line has been allocated Rs 200 crore. Similarly Kakinada-Pithapuram line has been sanctioned Rs 50 crore and Macherla-Nalgonda got Rs 20 crore. Kazipet-Vijayawada railway line, a third one has been given Rs 114 crore.
Similarly, Thumkur-Rayadurgam line is to cost Rs 970.34 crore and this has been given Rs 200 crore so far. Vijayawada-Gudivada-Machilipatnam, Bhimavaram-Narsapuram-Nidadavole doubling and electrification has been estimated to cost Rs 1,009.08 crore in the past and it has been so far allocated Rs 141 crore.
While Guntur-Tenali-Repalle doubling as well electrification is tocost Rs 133.46 crore, so far Rs 35 crore had been sanctioned. Bhadrachalam-Kovvur line's estimated cost was RS 923.23 crore, but not even the survey of the same has been ordered. As for the Guntur-Guntakal doubling which is estimated to be Rs 2,033 crore, is just confined to paper along with Devarapalli-Penukonda (48 km) which is not even being mooted so far though it costs just Rs 400 crore.
