Three projects from Telangana feature in top five Overrun railway projects

The Mahabubnagar – Munirabad railway project, which was approved in 1997, stands as the best example of the negligent attitude

Hyderabad: The Mahabubnagar – Munirabad railway project, which was approved in 1997, stands as the best example of the negligent attitude and discrimination of both the Congress and BJP governments at the Centre towards Telangana’s development.

This is not an isolated project. Among the top five projects with maximum time Overruns (TOR) in the railway sector, three projects from Telangana feature in the list. Apart from Mahabubnagar – Munirabad, the Kotipally – Narsapur project is the third most delayed project, followed by the Manoharabad – Kotapally project which is fifth in the list.

This reflects the commitment of Congress and BJP governments in developing basic infrastructure and ensuring the welfare of people in Telangana. Despite repeated appeals from people and elected public representatives, these projects, which were approved nearly two decades ago, continue to hang in balance.

On the reasons for inordinate delay in completion of the projects, delay in tie-up of project financing, delay in tendering, delay in ordering and equipment supply, contractual issues, land acquisition and other factors were listed out in the report.

The Mahabubnagar – Munirabad project was approved in April 1997 and the date of commissioning was March 2000. Even after 22 years, the project continues to be delayed and as per the latest estimates the anticipated date of commissioning is March 2023.

Amidst this inordinate delay, the project has now earned the dubious distinction of being the most delayed railway project in the country. And, this was reported by the Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division (IPMD) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

In its 441th Flash Report on Central Sector projects (of Rs.150 crore and above) released in August this year, IPMD maintained that the Mahabubnagar-Munirabad railway project was delayed by 276 months. The IPMD monitors the projects progress on the information uploaded by the respective executing agencies on the Online Computerised Monitoring System.

As per the report, the Kotipally – Narsapur was approved in December 2001 and original Date of Commissioning was March 2009. The projected is delayed by 216 months and the anticipated Date of Commissioning is March 2027.

The Manoharabad – Kotapally new line was approved in April 2006 and the original Date of Commissioning was March 2010. The project is delayed by 180 months and the anticipated Date of Commissioning is March 2025.