Telangana will get equal share in Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas, says Modi

Hyderabad: After the inauguration of Vande Bharat Express from Secunderabad-Tirupati, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a public speech at the Parade Grounds. “Today, over Rs 11,800 crore projects have been gifted to Telangana. These projects are related to rail and road infrastructure. I congratulate the people of Telangana,” said the PM. Modi, who referred to Hyderabad as Bhagya Lakshmi city in his speech, said Vande Bharat will connect the city to Venkateswara Swamy temple in Tirupati.

The PM said that the people of Telangana can aspire for progress due to the NDA government. “Telangana should get its equal share in Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas. The Railways has worked overtime to ensure Telangana gets 13 MMTS services,” said Modi.

“Today’s new Bharat is progressing rapidly resulting in modern infrastructure. Even in Telangana, over the last nine years, the railway budget has seen a steep increase. Development works, including doubling or electrification of new rail lines, are being done at a high speed,” the PM said.

Ease of travel

In this year’s budget, the Centre has allocated Rs 6,000 crore to Telangana. This will result in new investments and progress. Modi said that through railways, the Central government is working on improving highway road projects. The new doubling of rail lines between Hyderabad and Mahabubnagar will benefit commuters. The AIIMS at Bibi Nagar will offer multiple medical facilities, he added.

Ease of doing business

The Prime Minister announced a new textile park for Telangana, which will be one of the seven textile parks in India. “Amid the fluctuating world economy and the pandemic, India allotted Rs 10 lakh crore for infrastructure. Now, modern infra is being created in every corner,” said Modi.

Redevelopment of Secunderabad Station

The Indian Railways has taken up the prestigious project of redevelopment with world-class amenities for rail passengers across prominent railway stations in all zones.

The Secunderabad Railway station, the largest station across SCR in terms of passenger movement, will be developed at a cost of Rs 720 crores. Secunderabad Railways station is an NSG1 category station, earning more than Rs 500 crore, while handling over 20 million outward passengers annually. On average around 200 trains are dealt per day from the station with an average daily footfall of nearly 1.8 lakh passengers. The railway station is being redeveloped to act as a new city centre for generating business opportunities and revenue generation for the people. The contract was awarded in EPC mode to Girdharilal Construction Private Limited in October 2022 and is targeted for completion within 36 months.

The redeveloped station will have multimodal transport connectivity for providing seamless transfer of rail passengers from one mode to the other. The circulating area will be decongested and will be integrated with the city road network. The redevelopment of Secunderabad will be able to cater to the needs of the increased footfall at least for the next 40 years.

Facilities that will come up at Secunderabad station include:

- New station building on the north with G+3 floors

- South building with G+3 floors

- Double-storey sky concourse

- Multi-level parking north of the station

- Underground parking on the south side

- Construction of two walkways (7.5 m) along with travelators

- Provision for a walkway in the north connecting the skyway of east and west metro stations.

- Renovation of the existing platforms to match the new station ambiance, including end-to-end platform covers.

- Separate entry and exit blocks (drop off and pick up locations) to avoid cross movements of arrival and departure passengers and vehicular movements.

- Building lifts, escalators, travelators, modern signage, and CCTV cameras.

Malkajgiri Residents Association president BT Srinivasan thanked Narendra Modi for making their dream project MMTS Phase II (partial) turn into a reality.

He requested to address army defence land issues to complete Moua Ali — Sanathnagar link for lakhs of commuters.

"You reviewed the delay of MMTS phase II in your monthly 'PRAGATI' program on November 26, 2016, and instructions were given to Defence Ministry to allow Railways to start laying the second track by Union Cabinet Secretary in the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) meeting on 17.11.2016. But even today we facing the same problem", he said.

In his recent visit to Hyderabad, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to explain the road map of railway development activities for the year 2023-2024 in the South Central Railway. He said that Ashwini Vaishnaw promised to monitor personally MMTS Phase II for its early completion and assured us to get the project completed before March 2024.