Mumbai, Aug. 3 -- KTR urged the Union government to expedite the Manoharabad-Kothapalli railway and to grant Kazipet rail division status with IT support. He sought acceleration of the 151-kilometre Manoharabad-Siddipet-Sircilla-Vemulawada-Kothapalli broad gauge line as a long standing aspiration of Telangana. He noted the foundation stone was laid when K Chandrashekar Rao was Union Labour Minister and that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi revived the project by providing free land, right of way and agreeing to bear one third of the cost.

The 76-kilometre Manoharabad-Siddipet section was commissioned on three October 2023, but work on the remaining 75 kilometres has slowed since the state government changed. KTR said Telangana has not released its pending contribution of Rs 5.11 billion (bn) nor acquired 96 hectares needed for completion. He warned costs have risen from Rs 11.6 billion (bn) to about Rs 27.8 billion (bn) and urged central intervention to avert further delay.

KTR highlighted the line's benefit for Sircilla, a textile hub, and for Vemulawada, which draws pilgrims. He asked that both stations be included in the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, that a rail-cum-road bridge across the Mid Manair Reservoir be approved and that electrification of the Kothapalli-Manoharabad line be finished. He urged a high level coordination committee of South Central Railway and Telangana officials to monitor the project in line with the Prime Minister's PM Gati Shakti vision.

He also sought central support for Telangana's tier two information technology ecosystem and cited BRS efforts between 2014 and 2023 to decentralise IT and expand jobs. KTR said expansion has slowed over the past two years, occupancy in IT towers has fallen and some firms have scaled down. He noted Telangana had 0.946 million (mn) IT jobs under BRS and that the figure has fallen by nearly 7,000 under the present government. He requested an IndiaAI centre and data lab in Warangal and an STPI centre of entrepreneurship for Karimnagar or Khammam.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Construction World.