VIJAYAWADA: The Railway Budget subsumed in the General Budget 2018-19 presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday has no mention of creating a separate Railway Zone with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters. The separate railway zone is the long-cherished dream of the people of north Coastal Andhra.
However, the Finance Minister sanctioned various infrastructure projects for Andhra Pradesh in the budget, which include doubling and electrification of new railway lines. However, specific allocations made to AP in the Railway Budget 2018-19 will be available only in the next couple of days after the Railway Board convening a meeting with the General Managers of various railway divisions in the country.
In the 2017-18 Railway Budget, allocation for Andhra Pradesh was `3,406 crore, a steady increase from `2,823 crore in the 2016-17 budget. It was almost double the allocation made to Telangana.
Both the South Central Railway (SCR) and East Coast Railway (ECoR) serve people of Andhra Pradesh. As many as 16 railway stations in the State will be upgraded under the Adarsh Station Yojana. The facilities such as ticket counter, toilets and over-bridges will be upgraded under the scheme.
projects completed in AP in the last three years
120.2 km New railway line between Yerraguntla-Nossam-Banganapalli-Nandyal
21.8 km New railway line between
Kadapa - Pendlimarri of Kadapa-Bengaluru
11.5 km Doubling of railway line between Matmarri- Mantralayam Road Section of Guntakal-Raichur Doubling Project. With this doubling of Renigunta-Guntakal section fully completed
34.7 km Third Railway Line between Vizianagaram-Titlagarh
Electrification of Vizianagaram - Rayagada section
Electrification of 167 km
Nallapadu-Cumbum sections of Guntur-Guntakal project
105 Road Under Bridge (RuB) works have been completed and commissioned