VISAKHAPATNAM: Visakhapatnam BJP MP K Hari Babu has said that Central ministers Piyush Goyal, Nitin Gadkari and Prakash Javadekar will tour Andhra Pradesh soon. The ministers will explain to the people what the Narendra Modi-led BJP government has done for the State in the last four years, he said.
A formal decision for setting up a railway zone with Visakhapatnam as headquarters has been taken and it will be announced soon, the Vizag MP said.
Addressing reporters here on the sidelines of a programme of Waltair division, Hari Babu said that an in principle decision was taken regarding the railway zone when party leaders from the State met BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi recently. He said that there were still some issues with Odisha, and they were being sorted out.
According to him, the Railway Board is against formation of a new zone. “It was a political decision. The Railway Minister will issue instructions to the board very soon,” he claimed.
Steel plant
Hari Babu also said that some political parties had been misleading people about the BJP, which is committed to development of Andhra Pradesh.
The MP said that initially though the report submitted by Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) said that setting up of steel plant in Kadapa was not financially viable, the then Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu intervened and formed another Task Force that included RINL and Metallurgical & Engineering Consultants (India) Limited (MECON). The Task Force, in its report, again stated that the steel plant could be set up in Kadapa if the State government offered some exemptions and even the AP government had responded positively to the suggestions.
Hari Babu also added that Amit Shah had responded favourably to the steel plant in Kadapa and the BJP government would definitely stick to the promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act.