HYDERABAD: Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday made it clear that the Centre has no plans to establish a coach factory in Telangana. In reply to a question raised by TRS MP KR Suresh Reddy in the Rajya Sabha, whether Railways plan to establish the factory in Telangana, the Union Minister said: “No”.
“A prerequisite to setting up a Rail Coach Factory is a sustained demand of coaches. Currently, the existing capacity and planned augmentation of capacities in existing factories are sufficient to meet the requirements of Indian Railways in the near future,” Vaishnaw said. Suresh Reddy had also sought details of the measures taken to improve rail connectivity in Telangana, as a part of the Union government’s obligations under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
In response, Vaishnaw said: “For rail connectivity to Amaravati under the provision of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act,2014, Vijayawada-Guntur via Amaravati project was included in the Budget 2017-18 subject to requisite government approvals. A Detailed Project Report (DPR) was made for Errupalem-Namburu via Amaravati single line (56.53 km) with an assessed cost of Rs 1,732.56 crore.
Due to low traffic projections and low rate of return, the AP government was approached for cost sharing of the project. However, the AP government did not agree to cost sharing. Therefore the project could not be taken forward. Keeping in view continuous representations from the government of AP and public representatives, the matter has been re-examined and zonal railway has been advised to update the DPR of the aforementioned project with latest cost and traffic projections. Zonal railway has taken up the work of updating the DPR.
Sensitive railway stations
In reply to another question, Vaishnaw said in the Rajya Sabha that the Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Tirupati railway stations are sensitive railway stations in Secunderabad and Guntakal Railway Divisions of the South Central Railway. A high level committee comprising officers from National Security Guards (NSG), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Delhi Police, Railways Protection Force (RPF) and Railways was constituted in 2007 for recommending a composite security plan for Indian Railways. The committee submitted its report on the Composite Security Plan in the year 2008. The committee identified sensitive and vulnerable stations of Indian Railways. Based on their report, 202 railway stations have been identified as sensitive, Vaishnaw said.
Farmer debts
Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar replied to a question in Rajya Sabha that the average amount of outstanding loan per agricultural household in Telangana was Rs 1,52,113.
MANDAVIYA SENDS APOLOGY TO NAMA
Hyderabad: Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has sent a written apology to BRS floor leader in Lok Sabha Nama Nageswara Rao on Friday for wrongly mentioning in the current session of Parliament that the Centre sanctioned a bulk drugs park for Telangana. In his oral reply in the Lok Sabha during Question Hour on December 16, Mandaviya had said that the Centre sanctioned a bulk drugs park for Telangana. However, Nageswara Rao pointed out that the Centre had not sanctioned the park to Telangana.