Centre remains cold-hearted scrooge in Railway lines for Telangana

Since the formation of Telangana, the 151 km Kothapalli-Manoharabad railway line is the only major project that has taken off in the State

Hyderabad: Every time Telangana has pointed out that the Centre was biased in awarding new railway lines or in extending more projects to the State, leaders and ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party have denied the same.

Some even made announcements, either on developing the Secunderabad Railway Station, or on sanctioning a Vande Bharat Express to operate from the State. Even these, so far, haven’t seen much progress.

And now, even figures listed in the Reserve Bank of India’s latest Handbook of Statistics on Indian States, testify that leaders from Telangana were speaking the truth all along since 2014.

According to the RBI data, the Centre sanctioned 1,871 kilometres of rail lines in the State in 2021. This might sound big, but not when compared to what other States have got. BJP-ruled State Uttar Pradesh got 8,799 km, while Maharashtra got 5,823 km and Gujarat got 5,327 km. Madhya Pradesh got 5,140 km while Karnataka 3,572 km.

Bigger States got more? No.

Even a State smaller in size than Telangana, Jharkhand, has consistently got more railway lines in seven years from 2017 to 2021, with Jharkhand getting 2,182 km in 2014, 2,294 km in 2015, 2,394 km in 2016 and 2,455 km in 2017, with 2,573 km being given in 2021.

On the other hand, Telangana got 1,753 km in 2014, 1,676 km in 2015 and 1,737 km in 2016, with the figures never going above 2,000 km in seven years. In 2020, it got 1,828 km, and 1,871 in 2021.

Connecting States? No again. The neighbouring Andhra Pradesh was sanctioned 3,965 km in 2021.

In fact, since the formation of the new State, the 151 km Kothapalli-Manoharabad railway line is the only major project that has taken off in the State. The project is likely to be completed by the end of 2024. The 54.1-km new railway line between Kothagudem and Sathupalli constructed by the South Central Railway in association with the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd at a cost of Rs 927.94 crore is the only one completed so far in last five years.

This aside, it is now well known that the promises in the AP Reorganisation Act, which included that the Railways would examine the feasibility of establishing a rail coach factory in Telangana and improve rail connectivity in the State, are still on paper, with projects that were to come here going to other BJP-ruled States.