Rs 8,406 crore Railway Budget allocated to AP

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways of the Union, said: "A staggering Rs 8,406 crore allocation was made for the railways in Andhra Pradesh in the Union budget for the year 2023-24.

This was against the Rs 7,032 crore in 2022-23, an increase of 20 percent. He said, on the other hand, rs 4,418 crore has been allocated to the state of Telangana. He recalled that the allocation between 2019-2014 for the combined states was only Rs 886 crore.

The minister communicated with the media of both Telugu states about the allocations of the 2023 railway budget, from Rail Bhavan, New Delhi via videoconferencing. He said a total of 72 stations in Andhra Pradesh were used to be developed as world-class stations.

He said the Vande Bharat Rail was successful and the occupancy rate was nearly 120 percent on the train running between Visakhapatnam and Secunderabad.

The Vijayawada division has done a lot of infrastructure work. Traffic facilities and safety have been improved within the target date of completion of these projects," he added.

"The section between New Piduguralla and Savalyapuram, over a distance of 46 km, has been completed and put into operation together with electrification. Work is being done in the remaining parts."

Rs 20 Crore is assigned for the Bhadrachalam. Kovvur new line project. The project was sanctioned in 2012-13 for a distance of 151 km at a sanctioned cost of Rs 1,445 crore and later it was revised to Rs 2,154.83 crore.

The official said that Rs 800 crore was allocated for Vijayawada - Gudur 3rd line project. The 3rd Line project was sanctioned in 2015-16 for a distance of 288 km with a sanctioned cost of Rs 3549 crore. An amount of '980 crore was allocated for the Guntur – Guntakal doubling project. The doubling project was sanctioned in 2016-17 for a distance of 404 km with a sanctioned cost of Rs 3,631 crore.

Meanwhile, waltair division of East Coast Railway zone received a record allocation of Rs 2857.85 crore in the current budget. Division railway manager Anup Satpathy, who briefed the media in Visakhapatnam on Friday, said more than Rs 2,800 crore were allocated to the Waltair division for various development activities.