International look for Secunderabad station

Hyderabad : If Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao has his way, the historic Secunderabad railway station will get expanded with international standards and an ultra-modern look.

In his meeting with South Central Railway General Manager P K Srivastava at Secretariat on Friday, KCR made various suggestions to develop the Secunderabad railway station with international standards with world-class facilities.

The Chief Minister discussed various proposals to be made in the forthcoming Railway Budget to expand railway network in the Telangana State.

As part of the plan, the Chief Minister suggested development of new passenger terminal at Secunderabad so as to reduce the congestion, besides two other terminals at Hyderabad and Kacheguda railway stations.

The Secunderabad railway station could be expanded further with more platforms. There was also a suggestion to provide exclusive road connectivity from the station to Hyderabad Metro Rail station on the Sardar Patel Road, so that passengers alighting from Metro Rail could straightway come to Secunderabad railway station to board their connecting train.

KCR promised all requisite help from the Telangana government regarding sparing of land and other clearances etc. for setting up the additional terminals.

He further advised the authorities to expedite the works on Road-Over-Bridges / Road-Under-Bridges in twin cities to ease out the road traffic and assured all necessary assistance from the GHMC and other State government agencies.

He emphasized on upgrading the railway infrastructure in the twin cities so as to effectively meet the developmental requirements. He said that the as part of second phase, the MMTS services should be extended up to Tupran, Falaknuma and Shamshabad line should be taken up and promised that connectivity transport would be improved in the city.

KCR suggested that the Railway officials improve Maula Ali and Nagulapalle railway stations and added that government would take all steps to improve the MMTS in city.

He wanted completion of pending Railway projects in the state at the earliest, steps to modernize Railway stations and bringing funds for the ongoing projects from the Centre.

The Chief Minister sought information on the progress of pending projects. He informed that a letter was being written by him to the Prime Minister on the pending projects, issues and on proposals.

He wanted the Railway officials to find out the Centre's response regularly on the issues and to help the state. The Chief Minister wanted to expedite construction of Manoharabad ' Kothapalli railway line and Peddapalle ' Nizamabad line.

KCR suggested the railway officials to take initiative in establishing Kazipeta division, on which already proposals were sent to the Centre. He wanted them to take up construction of wagon manufacturing factory at the earliest at Kazipeta.

He informed that allotment of land was discussed with the Warangal district collector and the site was ready. During the course of the meeting, the general manager briefed the Chief Minister on the ongoing Railway projects in Telangana and the plans for further expansion of Railway network and services in the state.

He sought the assistance of the Telangana government in the development of Rail infrastructure in the state, to which KCR responded positively.

On this occasion, the GM explained the performance of the Zone, the potential of passenger and freight traffic in Telangana portion of SCR. He assured the Chief Minister that the momentum of SCR's performance will continue aimed towards meeting the rail transportation requirements of passengers and also industry in this region.

T Padma Rao Goud, Minister for Excise & Prohibition, Govt. of Telangana; S. Narsing Rao, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Telangana and other senior officials were present during the meeting.