Centre must incentivise performing States like Telangana: KTR

Hyderabad: IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao once again expressed unhappiness over the union government not extending enough support to Telangana which is a performing State and demanded that performing States must be incentivised. He urged the Centre to support progressive States like Telangana which has been making significant progress in the areas of […]

Hyderabad: IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao once again expressed unhappiness over the union government not extending enough support to Telangana which is a performing State and demanded that performing States must be incentivised. He urged the Centre to support progressive States like Telangana which has been making significant progress in the areas of manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, handlooms and textiles, power, coal and others.

“Telangana, the youngest State in the country, is blessed with natural advantages in geographical resources, a world class skill-base, existing manufacturing practices and expertise, that have opened new opportunities for investments. If states like Telangana are encouraged, it would benefit the entire Indian growth rate, and can contribute significantly to meeting India’s export target,” said the Minister said, while participating in Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti-South Zone virtual conference chaired by union Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday.

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Once again, Rama Rao made a strong pitch for establishment of a defence corridor in Telangana which has several decades history of having strong defence-related ecosystem. He said the State was a major hub for defence institutions such as DRDO, DRDL, DMRL, RSI, ANURAG, and in the recent past, many private defence companies have made Hyderabad as a base for their operations.

“We are an automatic candidate for any defence corridor being considered by the Centre, as the State has a very conducive ecosystem in place. This will make international companies rethink their plans of moving to the new area with no ecosystem and might lose on the opportunity,” he said.

The Minister emphasised the need for providing an exclusive cargo rail network in Telangana to different ports with increased frequency. He said Telangana was a landlocked State which was being considered by a few businesses as a hindrance for the free movement of goods. He sought additional financial incentives from the Centre for creation of logistic infrastructure, enabling the State for setting up dry ports, integrated and multi model logistics parks.

Rama Rao also highlighted the need for better road, rail and air network connectivity. He explained that the frequency of trains to the ports was a major problem which was being faced in spite of Hyderabad being well connected by train to all ports. He urged the Centre to consider increasing the train frequency for faster movement of goods. Due to frequent cancellation of trains, he stated that the exporters were being forced to use trucks as a model of transport which in turn was leading to significant increase in logistic costs.

He strongly pitched for connecting the North-South Freight Corridor which passes through Telangana with Hyderabad, to create a win-win situation for all and unlock the increased possibilities and multimodal last mile transport.

Stating that the Centre’s flagship programme ‘Make in India’ had become ‘Assemble in India’, the Minister suggested that the union government give a big push to the Electronics as well as IT/ITeS sectors as not even a single chip is manufactured in India. The State has a clear candidature for any Electronic Manufacturing Cluster, and would definitely be able to host a plug and play facility, he added.