The Railway budget introduced in the Parliament on Tuesday left both the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh disappointed, while the railway authorities claimed that the south central railway got a bonanza with two High Speed Rail (HSR) trains being sanctioned in addition to 11 new express trains.
Already the zone was sanctioned 15 new trains in the railway interim budget announced in February last and thus takes the total to 26 for this financial year, said its General Manager P.K. Srivastava.
The governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh did not share the enthusiasm of the SCR chief. While Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao directly accused the BJP government of doing injustice to Telangana, the Andhra Pradesh government let it be known that it was also disappointed.
“We will pursue with the Centre for re-appropriation of the budget,” AP Social Welfare Minister R. Kishore Babu told The Hindu .
Travel time reduced Briefing newsmen after the presentation of the railway budget here in Rail Nilayam on Tuesday, Mr. Srivastava said the new HSR trains would be Hyderabad-Chennai and Secunderabad-Nagpur routes.
A high-speed train would travel with improved speeds between 160 KMPH and 200 KMPH.
This would reduce the travel time by six hours between Hyderabad and Chennai (790 km) and four-and-a-half hours between Secunderabad and Nagpur (578 km).
On the proposals for creating a new zone in tune with the State bifurcation, he pointed out that the Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda announced that a joint committee of Indian Railways and State government officials would examine all issues concerning Railways in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh States and submit a report.
According to the budget, there are 29 ongoing projects in Andhra Padesh and Telangana at an estimated cost of Rs. 20,680 crore.
Of these, 10 new lines are coming up in Andhra Pradesh and eight in Telangana. Both States have three projects each involving electrification, doubling and tripling of lines.
Five projects run through both the States, while one project originates in Telangana and ends in Maharashtra, another starts in Andhra Pradesh and ends in Karnataka.
