Kurnool Member of Parliament (MP) S. Sanjeev Kumar has alleged that only 15% works of the railway coach midlife rehabilitation workshop, coming up on the city’s outskirts have been completed. Dr. Kumar met Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and presented him with a memo on the ongoing works of the workshop.
In a press release, the MP also alleged that only about 20% of the funds were released by the government for the construction of the workshop, and questioned that how would 85% of the works be completed by the deadline – January 2020.
According to the documents made available to the media, the government has sanctioned ₹ 283.26 crore for the construction of the workshop, and has spent ₹ 54.26 crore up to April 2019. Moreover, the expected spending is ₹ 80 crore in 2019-20.
However, an official connected with the workshop project told The Hindu that a significant portion of the foundation works have been completed and that they are on track to complete the construction latest by March 2020.
Design delays, sand ban
The source also attributed the delays to the design process. He said as the ground is black cotton soil, there have been delays in finalising the foundation design.
The construction of the workshop was also hit by the sand ban imposed by the State government, which delayed the project by an additional three months, he said.