Andhra Business Bureau

HYDERABAD: Exactly an hour before the presentation of the Railway Budget by Minister Mamata Banerjee in the Lok Sabha, the 33 Congress MPs elected from Andhra Pradesh are keeping their fingers crossed, what with the bitter experience they had tasted last year.

With Telangana agitation attaining a feverish pitch, Mamata Banerjee may make an attempt to placate the frayed tempers of the State MPs by sanctioning Manuguru-Ramagundam line 199.63-km-long for which the State Government agreed to foot 50 per cent of the bill.

So much so, the long-pending doubling work of Vijayawada-Gudivada, Machilipatnam-Narsapur and Guntur-Tenali-repalle lines may be considered, according to sources to address the grievance of Andhra MPs. For, the State Government came forward to bear 50 per cent of the expenses.

Cumbum-Proddatur railway line, estimated to cost Rs. 809 crore, may also be considered to be included with the State bearing 13 per cent cost and the project proposed to be executed under public-private partnership.

Muneerabad-Mahbubnager line’s ongoing work, Peddapalli-Nizamabad line’s pending work between Jagitiyal and Nizamabad may also be taken up this time. There is a tremendous pressure from East Godavari MPs to connect Kakinada to the main line at Pithapuram owing to growing importance to Kakinda may also be considered this time.

The Centre may enhance the allocation on the Rs.1,000-crore Kadapa-Bangalore railway line, as Rs. 58 crore was already released (shared by the Centre and the State equally). Not to be left behind, the State MPs are also pursuing sanctioning of the 107-km-long second phase of MMTS in Hyderabad.

The South Central Railway’s remarkable performance of Rs. 8,000-odd-crore turnover, the largest from any zonal railway, may also favour the State.

However, with West Bengal elections round the corner, the Railway Minister may shower sops on her home State to corner the ruling CPI (M). The Rs. 1,300-odd-crore Nadikude-Sri Kalahasti and the Rs. 745-crore Kovvur-Bhadrachalam lines may also get the nod from the Centre. The Nadikude-Sri Kalahsti line would reduce the distance between Hyderabad and Sri Kalahasti by 169 km.