Railway Minister D. V. Sadananda Gowda in his maiden budget proposed seven new trains for two Telugu-speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
In the first railway budget presented after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the central government announced four new trains for Telangana and three for Andhra Pradesh.
The new trains for Telangana are Hyderabad-Chennai semi-bullet train, Nagpur-Secunderabad semi-bullet train, Secunderabad-Nizamuddin premium AC train and, Mumbai-Kazipet weekly express.
For Andhra Pradesh, the minister announced AP express between Vijayawada and New Delhi. Visakhapatnam-Chennai weekly express and Paradip-Visakhapatnam weekly express will be the other trains.
The railway minister said 29 pending rail projects in the two states will be completed at a cost of Rs.20,680 crore. He also announced a special monitoring committee for the purpose.
South Central Railway general manager P.K. Srivastava here said railway line between Peddapalli and Nizamabad in Telangana would be completed soon.
This was one of the major demands which Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao had made in his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, the railway minister has ignored another major demand of Telangana for developing Kazipet as separate division.
There was also no proposal for bifurcation of South Central Railway (SCR) as demanded by many in both the states. The SCR covers both the state barring north coastal Andhra.
(IANS)