Who will build proper approach road to Hyderabad’s Cherlapalli station?

Controversy arises over approach road construction to the Cherlapalli Railway Terminal during the terminus’s inaugural ceremony in Hyderabad.

The construction of the approach road to the newly built ₹413 crore Cherlapalli Railway Terminal became a bone of contention between the Central Ministers and a Telangana Minister during the inaugural ceremony in Hyderabad on Monday (January 6, 2025)

Minister for IT and Industries D. Sridhar Babu in his address requested the Centre to develop approach roads and offered substantial contribution from the Telangana Government. “Please give us some sort of grant to develop the approach roads like an integrated airport model and help in development of the vicinity with proper infrastructure. It will ease the commuters travel. Please also help us complete the pending railway works,” he said.

Union Minister of State for Railways and Jal Shakti V. Somanna was, however, emphatic that approach roads construction is the “job of the State Government” since the Centre has been , spending thousands of crores of rupees for stations development.

“Convince your Chief Minister to take up the work on approach roads. This is your work. Do it as early as possible. I am requesting on behalf of the Telangana people and the Modi Government as we have already built an iconic station which has no parallel anywhere in the South,” he said.

Union Minister of Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy, also Secunderabad MP, appealed to the State Government to have a “big heart” in taking up construction of the approach road and also expedite land acquisition process for extending MMTS suburban train service from Ghatkesar to Yadgirigutta. The State Government already owed up to ₹1,000 crore for MMTS phase-II, but the Centre went ahead and completed the works, he noted.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had held a coordination meeting to review the work on approach road to Cherlapalli unlike his predecessor K. Chandrasekhar Rao who did not bother to respond to his letters. “We are ready to cooperate with the Government,” said Mr. Kishan Reddy.

Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar wanted both the Centre and State to “keep politics aside and cooperate for development”. “The Modi Government’s focus has been on building highways, airports, railways and village roads and we are ready to help Telangana too,” he maintained. He also acknowledged the efforts of former BJP Uppal MLA NVSS Prabhakar in redeveloping the Cherlapalli station. Governor Jishnu Dev Varma and South Central Railway (SCR) general manager Arun Kumar Jain also spoke.