Plans for proposed high-speed rail corridors linking Telangana with Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai have become the focus of a dispute over land activity before the routes are finalised.
Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy met Union Railway Minister Ashwini Kumar Vaishnaw in Delhi on the preceding Friday. After the meeting, Kishan Reddy said the alignments for all three proposed corridors were still under study and no final decision had been taken.
Kishan Reddy said it was not right to begin land acquisition in the name of railway projects before the alignments were settled, the report said. He raised concern that such steps could agitate farmers.
The report said opposition parties had alleged that the state government was carrying out land-related activity at the field level for railway development before the route alignment was finalised. It referred to land allotments or markings in areas including Bahadurguda and raised questions about whether acquisition had begun and whether compensation for farmers had been decided.
The issue has sharpened the political contest between the Congress and the BJP, with the BRS also part of the dispute. The report also named Sunil Bansal, Abhay Patil and Rekha Sharma in connection with efforts to strengthen the party’s organisational cadre.
The Centre’s remarks have brought Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s position under scrutiny, the report said. It linked the controversy to the forthcoming Graduates’ MLC and local-body elections, including ZPTC and MPTC polls, while noting that the three corridor alignments remained under study.
