Telangana Cabinet decisions: Metro, water projects and new schemes

The Telangana Cabinet decided to take over Hyderabad Metro, launch new employee insurance and health schemes, and approve major water projects. However, it made no announcement on Rythu Bharosa or local body elections. The Budget will be presented on March 20

Hyderabad: Much to the disappointment of farmers, the State government has not made any formal announcement on disbursing Rythu Bharosa assistance this season and has only declared that the State Budget session will be held from March 16 this year.

Similarly, there was no announcement on the conduct of ZPTC and MPTC elections. The State Cabinet met here on Monday and discussed a host of issues.

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After the Governor’s speech on March 16, Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka will present the annual Budget on March 20, Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said while addressing media persons about the Cabinet decisions.

During the marathon Cabinet meeting, which continued for nearly six hours, the State government decided on the complete takeover of the Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited covering 69 km from L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad Limited. This exercise is likely to be completed by March 31 this year, he said.

The L&T management said that it could not take up the Metro Phase II and Phase III extension works. Accordingly, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Cabinet Ministers opined that there was a need to involve the Central government in the execution of Metro Phase II and III works in a joint venture, the Minister said.

The State government would pay Rs 15,000 crore, including the debt component, to L&T for taking over Phase I. The State government has already submitted the Phase II and III plans to the Central Government.

The Cabinet has approved the Manjira Water Supply Scheme Phase I and Phase II modernisation project in Greater Hyderabad with Rs 722 crore to replace decades-old pipelines with new ones. As per the proposals of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, it has also decided to carry out Osman Sagar pipeline modernisation works with Rs 282 crore.

The State government has also decided to launch two new schemes, including the Employees’ Accident Insurance Scheme and the Cashless Employee Health Scheme for government employees.

Under the accident insurance scheme, government employees and pensioners in the State will get coverage of Rs 1.2 crore in case of death in an accident or untoward incident. Term insurance of Rs 10 lakh will be applicable to employees up to the age of 60 for natural death. A total of 7.57 lakh people are covered under this accident insurance.

Similarly, the Cashless Employee Health Scheme will be applicable to 3.56 lakh government employees, 2.88 lakh pensioners and their dependent family members, totalling 17.07 lakh people.

The scheme will be applicable in all government hospitals as well as 652 empanelled private hospitals, covering 1,998 medical treatments. A digital health employee card will be provided to every employee.

Other decisions taken by the Cabinet:

• Allotment of 70 acres for construction of JNTU College at Gummaduru in Mulugu district.
• Allotment of 20 acres to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for constructing a temple at Khammam.
• The Vaidya Vidhana Parishad has been transformed into the Directorate of Secondary Health.
• Chittiguda, Yavapur, Enkathala and Tekulapally of Vikarabad will be merged with HMDA.
• Execution of CRMP Phase II in Greater Hyderabad limits. In addition to 744 km in Phase I, 300 km of roads will be developed and maintained under Phase II.
• Transfer of 223 acres to TGIIC for establishment of a multimodal logistics and food processing park at Koheda.
• Alienation of 153 acres in lieu of 42 acres defence land for elevated corridor works.
• A greenfield mini stadium will be constructed on five acres at Bhadrachalam.
• As part of Census 2027, the first phase of House Listing Operations will be conducted from May 11 to June 9. The second phase will be conducted in February 2027.