150 Railway project pending in AP since 2004

The number of pending Railway projects in the state has already crossed the 150-mark during the last two terms of UPA government. In such a backdrop the Railway experts doubt that the new projects announced in Tuesday’s railway budget will be implemented in the foreseeable future.

Only 10 of the 17 new trains for the South Central Railway announced in the previous railway budget have been introduced so far and and the rest are expected to be introduced before the end of the current fiscal year.

Of the Ten new trains were announced in the 2012 Railway Budget that will pass through South Central Railway only. Eight of them have been introduced so far: Of the four promised extensions of the train runs that will benefit passengers on the South Central Railway, only three have been extended. Leave alone last year’s announcement, the projects announced a decade ago are also yet to materialise. Nandyal-Yerraguntla, Karimnagar-Nizamabad, Macherla-Nalgonda lines are some which are moving slower than snail.

A wagon manufacturing unit at Kazipet, proposed three years ago is not a viable option any more,The proposed medical college at Lalaguda seems no longer on the cards. No mention either of the much-touted world-class railway stations at Secunderabad and Tirupati. Nothing also on the long-standing demand for merger of the Waltair division with South Central Railway.