Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw today slammed the BRS government in Telangana alleging that there was very little support forthcoming for taking up railway projects in the state. He claimed that the outstanding amount that Telangana owes to his ministry as state share was more than Rs 500 crore.

The BRS government has been lashing out at the BJP for failing Telangana and the party wants to uphold the Telangana model of governance as an alternative to the BJP in rest of India. The party will hold its first maiden rally outside Telangana tomorrow at Nanded in Maharashtra which being close to the border has a large Telugu population.

The Union Minister was in the state to explain the Budget allocations particularly focussing on railways. He said that Telangana was allocated Rs 4418 crore for railways this year and the value of the total projects allocated to the state stands at Rs 29581 crore.

“This can significantly increase if we get the cooperation of the state government. It is very unfortunate that in Telangana the focus is not on development of infrastructure but on something else. Despite so much push from the central government for creating a strong foundation for long term growth of the state and the people of Telangana there is very little support from the state government,” he said.

The Minister alleged that despite repeated reminders there was “very little movement” from the state government in terms of cooperation over land acquisition and contributing the state’s share on time.

He also said that the promised railway coach factory at Kazipet has been upgraded to a wagon manufacturing factory for Rs 521 crore. Although the project will require a total of 160 acres the state government has handed over only 150 acres and the land for the connecting line is yet to be acquired. The BRS had raised the railway coach factory issue to complain about the Centre’s step motherly treatment towards the state.

The Union Minister also went on to add, “Hyderabad is getting developed as the major hub for developing two major technologies, first is the 6G and the second is railway technologies for AI, machine learning, IOT and train protection system. So the Centres of Excellence are being developed within Hyderabad.”

While more routes for Vande Bharat are on the cards in Telangana, the Railways have allocated Rs 600 crore for MMTS, a lifeline for Hyderabad city. Around 39 stations were  developed in the state under Amrit Bharat stations schemes including Secunderabad, Begumpet, Adilabad, Bhadrachalam, Hyderabad and so on.