Rail Budget: Kakinada seeks more funds

The people of Kakinada and Konaseema in East Godavari district are eagerly awaiting the Railway Budget and hope it would give them a fair share of the pie.

Besides, seeking new railway lines and trains, they also want the construction of Kakinada-Pithapuram main railway line and Kotipalli-Amalapuram-Narsapur railway line, the major pending projects, be taken up immediately.

MM Pallam Raju, Union minister of state for defence and also a parliament member from the Kakinada constituency, said, "The Union ministry has recognised the important of the proposed Kakinada-Pithapuram main railway line and has forwarded the proposal to the Planning Commission.''

He said they had also submitted a representation to the Planning Commission on the importance of linking Kakinada with the main railway line.

"The linking up of Kakinada with the main railway track would help East Godavari in many ways,'' said SS Krishnaji, president of Kakinada and East Godavari District Railway Passengers Association .

They also want the expansion of Kakinada-Kotipalli line be resumed. This expansion was taken up with a view to expanding the line up to Narsapur in West Godavari district lining it with East Godavari district.

However, the expansion from Kotipalli to Narsapur was abandoned. The Kotipalli-Narsapur through Amalapuram would boost the revenues and also create a good transport facility particularly for coconut products for the people of Konaseema, they felt.

"The Kakinada railway line should be linked with the main track. The Kakinada-Kotipalli railway line should be expanded to Narsapur. A new train from Kakinada to Kolkata via Chakradharpur and Tatanagar should be introduce since there are no trains except a fast passenger from Kakinada to Visakhapatnam,'' said Duvvuri Subrahmanyam and Dusarlapudi Ramana Raju, organising secretary and convenor respectively of the Railway Line Sadhana Samithi.