Telugu people disappointed

• No railway zone at Visakhapatnam
  
• No wagon factory at Kazipet
  
• Tripling of Ballarsha-Kazipet-Vijayawada line shelved
  
• No expansion of carriage repair shop at Tirupati
  
• Threat of railways privatisation looms large

Hyderabad: The Railway budget which was presented in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday terribly disappointed the people of the two States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Introduction of foreign direct investments into railways for the first time ever since independence of India is considered a regressive step. With the announcement there was danger of the railway sector falling into the clutches of private people. The Railways, which has already burdened the commuters with Rs 8,000 crore before the budget, is thinking of jacking up ticket prices from hereafter along with the fuel price hike which is again against the interest of commuters.

It has been expected creation of new railway division with Tirupati as its headquarters, a new train linking Tirupati with another famous pilgrim centre Shirdi in Maharashtra, development of Tirupati as world class railway station and enhancing the capacity of CRS (carriage repair shop). Likewise, people hoped that the long-pending demands of setting up new railway division with Kazipet as headquarters and a coach factory would be granted at least by the BJP government. The proposed railway wagon factory at Kazipet has remained on paper. The demand for the tripling of Ballarsha-Kazipet-Vijayawada has been skipped.

There was a long-pending demand for a separate railway zone with Visakhapatnam as headquarters. As far as AP is concerned, only Vijayawada-New Delhi AP Express, Paradip-Visakhapatnam Weekly Express and Visakhapatnam-Chennai Weekly Express were introduced, which is very disappointing. The demand for increase in the frequency of trains from Vijayawada to Mumbai and Ahmedabad has been totally ignored.