Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday announced that the Lokmanya Tilak Terminal (LTT), Mumbai – Nizamabad Express will be soon extended up to Karimnagar. This will be the second link to Karimnagar after he flagged off the inaugural run of the Kacheguda-Nizamabad passenger extended up to Karimnagar, a long pending demand of Telangana.
Works like the Peddapalli-Karimnagar-Nizamabad rail line has been completed recently — this was proposed way back in 1993-94 when P.V. Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister — while Jaggayapet–Melacheruvu–Janpahad and Manoharabad–Kothapalli new line projects are progressing, he said and added that Manoharabad-Kothapalli line gives connection to the famous Vemulawada Temple.
“Telangana used to have ₹258 crore of capital investment but in the current year, the Modi government has allotted ₹1,813 crore for capital works which is an indication of Railways doing it with speed, skill and scale,” said Mr. Goyal at the Secunderabad Railway Station where he participated in a spree of inaugural and stone laying programmes.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Minister said all general managers have been instructed to try and reduce the six hour ‘maintenance’ period for trains so that assets could be utilised optimally with extension of trains to Karimnagar being a good example of it.
“There is lot of potential to do a lot of good work for TS,” the Railway Minister said and affirmed that Cherlapalli Terminal expansion, multi-level car parking at Ganesh Temple towards Platform No.1 side and skywalk connecting metro station will be completed soon.
Earlier, Nizamabad member of Parliament K. Kavita requested him to improve the amenities in Nizamabad station, increase the quota for disabled from 3% to 4% in jobs and provide rail connectivity between district headquarters and Hyderabad. SCR General Manager Vinod Kumar Yadav, whom the Minister called “best performing GM”, said best growth rate of 12% in gross earnings was registered in last financial year.
ADVERTISEMENT
With safety as top priority, SCR is set to eliminate unmanned level crossings with remaining 130-odd to be done later this year. About 152 km of new railway line was completed in the last four years in TS.
Commuters happy
“I travel by MMTS every day and I am really happy that the lifts and escalators are being provided here (meaning Secunderabad station) but many other stations are not equipped with basic amenities or public announcements like in Falaknuma and Borabanda,” says Rajini, a student.
However, Rajesh, another passenger is happy with the Karimnagar link. “I can easily travel to and from Nizamabad to Karimnagar now as I used to face a lot of trouble for commuting.”
Inputs by Mega J. Pandya (Intern).