Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday requested the Railways to set up a rail coach building factory in Rayalaseema region of the state to contribute to its development and generate employment.
Addressing a meeting after inaugurating the new Secunderabad-Tirupati bi-weekly Express here, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy requested Union Minister of State for Railways Kotla Suryaprakasa Reddy to set up the coach factory in the backward Rayalaseema.
He also wanted the Railways to expedite works related to the wagon factory at Kazipet in Telangana region.
Kotla said the financial position of Railways was bad and as such all development projects were getting delayed.
"As an MP, I complained about the injustice done to AP in railway projects. As a minister, I will now ensure that justice is done to the state in the next Railway Budget. We will also complete all pending projects," Kotla promised.
He said the railways was focusing on increasing safety and comfort of passengers. The MoS said two new trains from Visakhapatnam to Shirdi and Tirupati would be launched on December 15.
South Central Railway general manager GN Asthana said of the 16 new Express trains sanctioned to AP this year, eight were already introduced.
A new air-conditioned super-fast Express would be launched between Secunderabad and Kakinada tomorrow.
He said preliminary survey related to the much-delayed second phase of Multi-Modal Transit System would be completed by December 31 and the works would be taken up next year.
State Ministers J Geeta Reddy, Danam Nagender, Secunderabad MP M Anjan Kumar Yadav, MLA Jayasudha and others attended the function.
The bi-weekly train would run on Tuesday and Saturday from Secunderabad and on Friday and Sunday from Tirupati via Mahbubnagar, Kurnool, Dhone, Anantapur, Dharmavaram, Madanapalli, Piler and Pakala.
PTI
