Centre denies Secunderabad Railway Station a ticket to development

Secunderabad railway station could not make it to the list of major railway stations for which the Centre recently approved a Rs 10,000 crore redevelopment project.

Hyderabad: Telangana demanded a coach factory at Kazipet, however, the BJP government at the Centre approved it for Latur in Maharashtra. Telangana appealed for a bullet train, but it was sanctioned for Gujarat’s Gandhinagar. Now, adding to the long list of Centre’s discrimination towards Telangana is the Secunderabad Railway Station — one of India’s largest and busiest railway stations.

Despite bagging the National Tourism Award last month for the Best Tourist Friendly Railway Station on Indian Railways for the year 2018-19, this historic railway station could not make it to the list of major railway stations for which the Centre recently approved a Rs 10,000 crore redevelopment project.

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The station, which has been promised major projects for over 15 years, has never seen anything concrete happening, with the only hope now hinging on a Rs 653 crore redevelopment project, which is yet to take off. Officials claim that tenders have been called for. That is it!

This is when the Centre announced that the Rs 10,000 crore project will see the redevelopment of the New Delhi Railway Station, Ahmedabad Railway Station and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in Mumbai, which means each of the stations will get over Rs 3,000 crore.

The Secunderabad Parliamentary constituency, represented by Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, remained mum on the step-motherly treatment being meted out towards Telangana’s biggest railway station. However, the BJP leader chose to attack the State government accusing it of failing to deliver.

The Secunderabad Station was categorised as an NSG1 station (Non-suburban grade 1), with record earnings of Rs 500 crore and over 20 million passengers per annum. In 2008, the then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announced some major plans for the development of the Secunderabad Railway Station. While those plans remained on paper, the BJP-led government at the Centre, even after eight years in power, hasn’t shown any difference in the approach to the station.

On average, around 230 trains move in and out of the Secunderabad Railway Station with an average daily footfall of over 1.8 lakh passengers. More amenities, right from cafeterias to security, have all been long pending. This is when the Ministry of Railways has put a special focus on the redevelopment of important railway stations across all zones, claiming to provide first-class amenities complying with green norms and an elegant look and feel.

According to reports quoting the SCR officials, tenders have been floated in Engineering Procurement and Construction mode for taking up redevelopment of the Secunderabad station. Whe ther this project too, will meet the fate of the promises made by several Railway Ministries earlier, remains to be seen.

Apart from the Secunderabad Railway Station, the Centre’s double standards when it comes to the development of railway facilities in Telangana, are evident from the coach factory episode. As per the AP Reorganisation Act, a coach factory was assured to Telangana and the government allocated 150 acres for the same. Industries Minister KT Rama Rao wrote several letters to Union Ministers requesting to sanction the coach factory.

However, the BJP-led Centre changed tracks and approved the coach factory at Latur in Maharashtra. The same story was repeated with the demand for a bullet train for Telangana, which was flagged off last week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not from Hyderabad or Secunderabad, but from Gandhi Nagar to Mumbai.