HYDERABAD: In its proposals sent to the Railway Ministry on Feb. 16, the AP government had sent proposals for 23 new trains, but South Central Railway (SCR) got only 15 in Dinesh Trivedi’s rail budget apart from a couple of trains from Vizag to Shirdi and Chennai (East Coast Zone). There was also no mention of the Duranto Express between Vizag and Secunderabad that should have been introduced by the East Coast Zone in 2011-12.The chief minister’s request for MMTS Phase II has also been greenlighted since he promised to bear two-thirds of the cost of the project. MMTS Phase-II, covering 103 km, will cost `642 crore out of which the Centre’s allocation this year will be Rs100 crore. There was no mention in the budget of how much would be allocated for construction of new rail lines. The budget only said 13 three new lines would be taken up during 2012-13. According to SCR general manager G N Asthana, these include the Bhadrachalam-Kovuur, Akkanapet-Medak and Kakinada-Pithapuram sections. Asthana said for passenger amenities Rs 124.7 cr budget has been allocated as against Rs 81 cr last year. Six Adarsh stations have been announced this budget as against 3 last year. They are Jalna, Macherla, Piduguralla, Pokarni Narsimha, Sattenapalli and Vinukonda.Asthana said SCR will lay 131 km of rail track in the coming railway year out of the total of 725 km charted by the Indian Railways across the country. Claiming this to be an “unprecedented development”, The new lines targeted for completion in 2012-13 include Banaganapalli-Nandyal, Marikel-Makhtal, Raichur-Gadwal, Morthad-Armoor and Cuddapah-Ganganapalli. The new line surveys to be taken up during 2012-13 are: Nanded-Latur Road; Gunupur-Narsipattanam Road via Kurupam Parvatipuram, Makkava, Salur and Narsipatnam; Machhilipatnam-Repalle.via Nizampatnam; and a rail link from Singareni Collieries to Gandhipuram.The projects being executed with the government’s cooperation are Kotipalli-Narsapur, Kadapa-Bangalore Nadikude-Srikalahasti, Vijayawada-Gudivada-Bhimavaram-Narsapur; Gudivada-Machlipatnam & Bhimavaram-Nidadavolu MMTS Phase-II Expansion SanctionedHyderabad: MMTS Phase II might take off, after all. There was an allocation of Rs.100 crore in the railway budget. As the state government has given a commitment that it would bear two-thirds of the cost of the project, it would have to release Rs.430 crore as its share.According to GHMC commissioner MT Krishna Babu, there was no problem for funds. “Already a GO has been issued according sanction for`.430 cr. The railways will now have to communicate to us that `100 cr had been allocated”, he said.
Comments
0 comment