No zone, no trains, denizens upset

February 27, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 04:26 pm IST - VIJAYAWADA:

Held up:There is no announcement on the status of as many as 29 pending railway projects.- Photo: V. Raju

Held up:There is no announcement on the status of as many as 29 pending railway projects.- Photo: V. Raju

People looked forward to a special railway zone and new trains, but Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s budget had no mention of them. Vijayawada Tax Payers’ Association president V. Sambi Reddy said the BJP had promised to create a separate railway zone after coming to power. “There is no mention of the special zone and new trains for the State. This is quite unsatisfactory,” he said.

“In the last budget, the Railway Ministry had announced A.P. Express, but nothing concrete was done on that front. The proposed third line between Kazipet and Vijayawada will not be of much benefit for people. The elected public representatives should exert pressure on the Centre to announce more projects for the State,” he added. Meanwhile, the Vijayawada Chamber of Commerce said there was nothing new for the business community to cheer about in the budget. “It is pathetic to note that there is no announcement on the status of as many as 29 pending projects,” said chamber president V. Bhaskara Rao in a statement.

The Andhra Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation described the budget as disappointing, as there was no mention of a separate railway zone and new trains connecting various cities with Vijayawada.

Lack of clarity

There is no clarity on allocations to pending projects in the State. However, the federation welcomed Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s announcement on laying a third line between Kazipet and Vijayawada.

In a statement here, federation president-elect M. Muralikrishna said Mr. Prabhu had laid emphasis on transparency, passengers’ safety and amenities, besides freight.

The decision to take up railway projects under the public-private-partnership mode, implementation of ‘Swacch Rail’ along with other policies would go a long way in the development of railways on all fronts, he added.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.