KARIMNAGAR: The long-awaited railway line between Karimnagar and Nizamabad is likely to remain a distant dream if one goes by the meagre allocations in the Railway Budget.

In spite of the Railways earning crores of rupees through transport of goods on the Karimnagar and Peddapalli railway stations, the Indian Railways had neglected the fastest growing railway section in north Telangana region, which would open doors for all round development.

The ambitious railway line project connecting Peddapalli-Karimnagar-Nizamabad, covering a distance of 177 kilometers, was taken up in the year 1993 with former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao laying the foundation stone for the project. However, the project had progressed at a snail's pace due to poor allocations.

The Peddapalli-Karimnagar railway line, covering a distance of 35 km was completed in the year 2002 with the introduction of a passenger train. However, as the passenger train was not feasible between the two stations, the authorities have extended the train up to Khagaznagar in Adilabad district.

On the other hand, the Karimnagar railway station had for the first time in history of the Indian Railways introduced the transportation of granite loading from Karimnagar station to Visakapatnam in September 2002. Since then, it had never looked backed and earned several awards, including group award for excellent work in goods loading since 2003-04 onwards.

The railway station's outward goods earnings had increased from Rs. 17 crores in 2003-04 to Rs. 45 crores in 2006-07. The average weight of goods transported from the railway station increased from 3 lakh metric tones in 2003 to 7 lakh metric tones in 2006.

The Railway Budget had allocated only Rs. 35 crores for the completion of railway line from Jagtial to Nizamabad, which is 94 km, against the actual project cost of Rs. 205 crores. If the same trend continues, the Karimnagar and Nizamabad railway line would remain a distant dream for another 10 years or so.

On the other hand, the Budget had allocated only Rs. 1 lakh for the detailed project report of the proposed Karimnagar and Monarabad railway station.

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