Railway Budget for the year 2017-2018 missed the attention of many as it is was presented along with the General Budget for the first time yesterday. Railway Budget always increases the aspirations and dreams of people across various states in the country but very few of them get fulfilled.
Two Telugu states,Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for long dreamed of seeing their dreams turn into a reality but despite playing important role in the formation of two union governments, United Andhra Pradesh didnot see much allocations.
United AP aspired for railway zone for Visakhapatnam and completion of various projects but nothing materialised. After the bifurcation of the state, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are finding it difficult to realise their dreams.
Same thing happened even in this Railway Budget. The two states didnot get any new trains, no railway zone but Telangana and AP got massive funds allocations.
The budget outlay for Telangana state under South Central Railway (SCR) stood at `1,729 crore as against average allocation of `601 crore in last two years. Similarly , allocation for AP, also saw a jump from last two years' average to `3,406 crore from `2,195 this year.
Vinod Kumar Yadav, general manager (SCR) said “Secunderabad and Vijayawada will be taken up in first phase. We have already prepared papers and tenders for the two stations under public private partnership mode, which will be invited next week,“. He added “The government is synergizing investments of the railways, road transport, water ways and civil aviation, there by facilitating multi-modal transport planning,“
He shared “The merger of rail budget with general budget will surely enable merit-based decisions related to investment, operations and pricing, while balancing social and economic priorities. The advantage is Railways will no longer be required to pay dividend on capital at charge contribution from general revenues, which is `9,000 crore. Se cond important aspect is that Railways will continue to exercise financial autonomy ,“
GM revealed “When I joined office a fortnight back, I wrote to MPs to give suggestions. We have received 34 suggestions which have been forwarded to railway boards. A meeting with the MPs will be held soon,“
