Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu on Monday said the Railway Board was working hard to fulfil the aspirations of people and improving connectivity in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
He wanted the State governments to reach out and taking the hand of the Centre, work at proposals to expand the footprint of the Indian Railways. Special Purpose Vehicles will be created and States will prioritise developmental plans and send them to Railway Board for sanction and execution.
“AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu met me in New Delhi three days ago and today I am meeting Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to discuss developmental plans,” he said. Mr. Suresh Prabhu was interacting with presspersons at the Secunderabad station after flagging off an air-conditioned, weekly Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Express in the presence of Minister of State for Labour B. Dattatreya and MP V. Hanumantha Rao. “The demands of people are increasing and we will do our best. We will see how we can work together in AP and Telangana to fulfil people’s aspirations from the railway point of view,” he said.
To a question about the exercise by a 7-member committee to look into proposals for creating a new Railway Zone on the lines of the bifurcation of erstwhile AP, he said it was mandated in the AP State Reorganisation Act that paved the way for the birth of Telangana as the 29{+t}{+h}State in the Indian Republic. “The committee is looking into it and we will follow the provisions of the Act,” was all he would say. He also flagged off a weekly H.S. Nanded-Aurangabad Express through the remote mode from here, watching the gathering of officials and people’s representatives at Nanded on video screens. He explained how the introduction of this express would spur economic growth in the Marathwada region and said the Indian Railways was a vital growth engine for development in the country.
Earlier, Mr. Dattatreya, Mr. Hanumantha Rao and others including Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali, Ministers Naini Narsimha Reddy (Home), T. Padma Rao (Prohibition & Excise), MLC A.R. Amos and MLA N.V.S.S. Prabhakar sought the attention of the Railway Minister to the pressing demands from people of Telangana.
