The Hindu : Five new trains for State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 27, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Five new trains for State

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI FEB. 26. The Railway Budget for 2003-04 presented by Nitish Kumar has allocated nearly Rs. 800 crores to Andhra Pradesh, with a 10 per cent hike for projects, over the previous budget.

In addition, the State would have the benefit of five new passenger trains, increase in the frequency of one, extension of two and additional five new trains that would pass through the State.

Briefing correspondents, the Minister of State for Railways, Bandaru Dattatreya, said of the five new trains, three would run once a week -- Secunderabad-Bikaner, Vijayawada-Mumbi and Guwahati-Secunderabad.

The dailies include Secunderabad-Sirpurkagaz Nagar and Secunderabad-Vijayawada. The frequency of Secunderabad-Rajkot express would be increased from two to three.

The 7029/30 Sabari Express to Thiruvananthapuram has been extended to thrice a week, while 7225/26 Vijayawada-Hubli express to Goa to once a week.

Five new trains that would go via Andhra Pradesh include Yeshwantpur-Nizamuddin tri-weekly via Secunderabad, weekly Chennai-Dehra Dun/Chandigarh via Kazipet, Vijayawada, weekly Hatia-Yeshwantpur via east coast, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar-Yeshwantpur via coastal Andhra and Muzzafarpur-Yeshwantpur via east coast lines.

The trains now extended to the State include, 7225 Vijayawada-Hubli-Vasco, Durg-Yeshwantpur to Bilaspur and Bokaro-Allepey to Dhanbad.

Mr. Dattatreya said a 10 per cent hike has been announced in the budget for projects in the State which include new lines, gauge conversion and doubling work.

As against, Rs 42.63 crores last year, the current budget proposes to allocate Rs. 61.33 crores for new lines.

Allocation for doubling work had been increased from Rs. 108.6 crores last year to Rs. 154 crores in the current budget.

However, the allocation had come down for gauge conversion, from Rs. 86.01 crore last year to Rs 63.68 crores this year.

Other areas where allocations have be slashed include, signalling, bridges, rail overbridge/underbridge, level-crossing, passenger amenities, and staff quarters.

Disappointing budget

says Naidu

Our Hyderabad Special Correspondent adds:

The Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, has described the railway budget as `disappointing for the State'.

In a statement, Mr. Naidu said the allocations for the year 2003-04 in respect of new projects and new lines had fallen short or expectations.

A number of proposals of the State Government had not been included and even last year's allocations to the State were not maintained.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States