Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Hyderabad on 19 January to flag off the Vande Bharat Express between Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam and unveil several developmental projects worth Rs 2,400 crore and also address a massive rally at the Secunderabad Parade ground.

The prime minister’s visit to Telangana to launch the developmental works comes at a time when the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi leaders have been attacking Narendra Modi and his government at the Centre for allegedly neglecting the state.

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Senior BJP leaders including party’s state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar and the national president of OBC morcha Dr K Laxman on Monday held discussions with South Central Railway officials at Secunderabad Railway Station over the prime minister’s upcoming visit to the state. They later visited the Secunderabad Parade Ground.

Apart from laying the foundation stone for modernisation of the Secunderabad Railway Station at a cost of Rs 700 crore, the prime minister will inaugurate the coach overhauling workshop at Kazipet which is estimated to cost Rs 521 crore through remote control. He will lay the foundation for doubling of tracks between Secunderabad and Mahabubnagar at a cost of Rs1231 crore.

“I hope these programmes would be an eye opener to BRS who have launched a false propaganda against the Centra and the prime minister,” said Bandi Sanjay Kumar.

He further added, “The Central government has taken up development of the national highways in the state at a cost of Rs1.4 lakh crore taking Telangana to number two position in the country.”

The semi high speed train Vande Bharat between the two Telugu states will reduce travelling time by three and half hours.

This is the first visit of Modi to Telangana in 2023. He visited Telangana in November last year when he had dedicated the Ramagundem fertiliser unit to the nation. It would be interesting to see whether Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will receive the prime minister in person this time.

Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will hold a massive public meeting at Khammam on the previous day, 18 January, where he is expected to criticise the Prime Minister and BJP. With Assembly elections in Telangana slated to be held at the end of this year there will be plenty of rhetoric from both parties.