The 23-year wait of Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts for a new railway line ended when the Peddapally-Nizamabad railway line was inaugurated.
The 23-year-long wait of the people of Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts for a new railway line came to an end on Saturday when the Peddapally-Nizamabad railway line was inaugurated by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu remotely at a colourful function held at the Hi-Tech City railway station.
After the Railway Minister inaugurated the 180-km new railway line with the help of a video link, Telangana Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy flagged off the train at the Nizamabad railway station.
The new railway line will be a nerve centre on the railway map connecting all key railway stations. It will also also help reduce the rail journey time between Maharashtra and New Delhi.
Except on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the train between Nizamabad and Peddapally, which have 13 stations in all between them, will run on all days. During the two days that the train does not run, it will be berthed at the Nizamabad station.
Suresh Prabhu, after inaugurating the new railway line and also various other infrastructure development works including the railway doubling works between Secunderabad and Mahbubnagar, expressed happiness that the new line, which had been pending for decades, had at last been commissioned, fulfilling the desire of the people of Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts.
Prabhu said that the Railways could take up more projects, for which the support and cooperation of the state government were essential.
The minister also said that as many as 10 railway stations, including those at Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Aurangabad, were now digital-payment enabled (DigiPAY). He also said that a water treatment plant for three lakh litres of water had been installed at the Nampally railway station.
Speaking on the occasion, Nizamabad MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha said that the newly inaugurated railway line was in fact thought of in the year 1932, and that during the 60 years of undivided Andhra Pradesh the project could not take off. After the new state of Telangana was formed, however, the TRS government had relentlessly pursued the matter and made it a reality, she claimed.
Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, TRS MP Jitender Reddy, Advisor To The Government D Srinivas and many senior leaders and officials were present on the occasion.
It is pertinent to note here that then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao had laid the foundation for the new railway line in 1994, and that it took nearly 23 years for completion at an estimated expenditure of Rs 400 crores.