Hyderabad, Jan 6 (IANS): Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Friday met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the national capital and requested her to release pending funds to the state.

He urged her to release Rs 1,800 crore to Telangana for the backward areas development under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.

Telangana has to get Rs 450 crore every year for the development of backward areas, but the Centre has not released the funds for the last three financial years.

The Chief Minister, who was accompanied by Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, also requested the finance minister to release Rs 2,233.54 crore to Telangana under 15th Finance Commission. He also sought special funds from the Centre for development of Hyderabad.

Revanth Reddy also called on Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and urged him to transfer the defence lands to the state for development of roads and elevated corridors in Hyderabad.

He requested the Defence Minister to order transfer of 0.21 hectares defence land for construction of a skywalk to ease traffic congestion at Mehdipatnam. According to the Chief Minister’s Office, the Defence Minister responded positively to the request.

The Chief Minister also requested for transfer of 83 acres of land fpr development of 11.30 km-long six-lane elevated corridor to connect Hyderabad to Rajiv Rahadari (Karimnagar-Ramagundam road).

Similarly, he also urged the Defence Minister to transfer 56 acres of defence land to the state for construction of a 12.68 km-long elevated corridor from Paradise Junction to Outer Ring Road to facilitate easy movement of traffic towards Nagpur highway.