Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that Andhra Pradesh will be included in the high-speed corridor planned for southern India and Tejas Express would be introduced in the state soon after it is successfully piloted between Mumbai and Goa and Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
Participating in the remote inauguration/commissioning of 10 railway projects from the city on Thursday, Mr. Prabhu said there was a huge backlog to be cleared by the Ministry of Railways for development of Andhra Pradesh. “The high-speed rail corridor whose feasibility is being studied by experts from Germany will increase the speed of trains, thereby playing a catalytic role in the development of railways,” he stated.
The Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) floated by the Ministry and the Government of A.P. would be launched soon. In-principle agreements have already been made for it.
The Railway Minister said ₹8.51 lakh crore was being invested in the Indian railway network, including a capital expenditure of approximately ₹3.75 lakh crore. The Ministry had got mega projects like the manufacture of best-in-class diesel and electric locomotives by GE-Alstom, retrofitting and improving the interiors of nearly 40,000 coaches and development of 10 world class stations by the National Building Construction Corporation lined up.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said Vijayawada had been a railway junction since the British era, and wanted it to be connected to Mumbai and Bengaluru and Amaravati to Hyderabad, Bengaluru and other cities.
He requested Mr. Prabhu to get the Mumbai-Kharagpur freight corridor to be linked up with Raipur and Visakhapatnam which, he pointed out, was also a wish of his counterpart in Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh.
The Chief Minister said he was prepared to give 33 acres in Vijayawada for the establishment of the National Academy of Railway Security, and reminded Mr. Prabhu about the need to provide railway connectivity to the upcoming seaport at Machilipatnam.
Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, M. Venkaiah Naidu said the speed at which railway projects are being executed in A.P. was a part of the ‘special treatment’ given to it by the Union government.
