Telangana will not compromise on Kazipet coach factory, says Vinod
People of Telangana would not compromise for anything less than a full fledged railway coach factory at Kazipet, said Vinod Kumar
Hyderabad/Hanamkonda: The controversy surrounding the Kazipet Coach Factory is all set to flare up again. Even as the State is continuing to insist that the promise of the coach factory made as part of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act be honoured, the Centre has remained adamant, and after first announcing a periodic overhauling unit, is now claiming that a wagon making unit, not a coach factory, will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.
Registering strong protest against this, State Planning Board Vice Chairman B Vinod Kumar on Thursday categorically stated that the people of Telangana would not compromise for anything less than a full fledged railway coach factory at Kazipet. It was a commitment given to the State by the Centre during bifurcation of the State and that needs to be fulfilled at any cost, he said.
On the other hand, South Central Railway officials, who visited the Kazipet site on Thursday, said that initially, a Wagon Repair Workshop was sanctioned at Kazipet to undertake periodic overhauling. However, ‘considering factors such as the increased demand for wagons by the Railways, requests from political leaders to establish a manufacturing unit to support local industry’ and so on, the wagon repair shop was being ‘upgraded’ to a railway manufacturing unit, they said.
Reacting to this, Vinod Kumar said the injustice being meted out to Kazipet as well as the State on this count would be undone by the BRS itself. It would be a coalition government at the Centre after the next general elections and the BRS would be a major constituent of the coalition to set things right.
The Centre was playing cheap tactics to back out from its commitment claiming there was no demand for coach factories in the country. If that was so, how were coach factories set up in Maharashtra and Gujarat, he asked, pointing out that the people of Warangal were very much wary of the tricks sought to be played on the State by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his visit to inaugurate the wagon making unit. The people of the State were not ready to take any more injustice, Vinod Kumar said.
People had staged protests in Warangal on a large scale demanding a coach factory in Kazipet in the past too. In 1980, after PV Narasimha Rao won as MP, he had promised the people that he would set up a coach factory in Kazipet. Surveys were done and thousands of acres of land were sought to be acquired in Ayodhyapuram, Madikonda, Rampur and other areas around Kazipet. However, the project remained a non-starter as the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated and the coach factory was given to Kapurthala to quell the Khalistan movement. Leaders such as Zafar Sharif, Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, Sonia Gandhi and Piyush Goyal could set up coach factories in their own constituencies while letting down the people of Kazipet, he said.
Earlier in the day, SCR general manager Arun Kumar Jain on Thursday said the Prime Minister would lay the foundation for a Railway Manufacturing Unit at Kazipet on Saturday. This manufacturing unit would be the first of its kind in Telangana and would contribute to the overall development of the region, Jain said, adding that the unit would produce a variety of rolling stock based on the specific requirements.
Jain, accompanied by AK Gupta, Divisional Railway Manager (Secunderabad), Munna Kumar, Chief Project Manager, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited and other officials visited the site at Ayodhyapuram near Kazipet on Thursday.
“Initially, a Wagon Repair Workshop was sanctioned at Kazipet to undertake a Periodic Overhauling unit (POH) of 200 wagons per month. Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) was entrusted with the project, and the detailed estimate was sanctioned at a cost of Rs 383 crore. However, considering factors such as the increased demand for wagons by the Railways, requests from political leaders to establish a manufacturing unit to support local industry and the potential for employment generation and socio-economic development in the region, the wagon repair shop is being upgraded to a railway manufacturing unit at an estimated cost of Rs 521 crore,” he said.
Jain, however, did not elaborate much on the tendering process for the Railway Manufacturing Unit, as tenders had already been finalized and work had commenced on the Wagon Repair Workshop. The project is expected to create approximately 1,200 direct job opportunities once completed, he said, adding that there was no provision for jobs to those who relinquish their lands for the project, as the State government has already acquired and handed over 150 acres to the Railways and would soon provide an additional 10 acres.
