Naidu Invites PM Modi To Launch New Railway Zone Before Year-End

Visakhapatnam: After several twists and turns, the long awaited railway zone with headquarters in Visakhapatnam may take off soon with the laying of foundation stone for South Coast Railway Zone by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has invited Modi to perform bhoomi pooja for the new zone either in November or December as per his convenience. SCoR, once formed, will be the 18th zone in the country.

Though Modi during pre-poll rally on February 27, 2019 had announced here the establishment of SCoR with headquarters in Visakhapatnam, there has been inordinate delay in issuance of notification on operationalising it. The new zone is estimated to have a track length of 3,496 km. It will consist of Waltair, Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal divisions spreading over parts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The original decision to abolish Waltair division, the most revenue-fetching division in East Coast Railway, had sparked off protest following the announcement to merge parts of it in Vijayawada and newly-created Rayagada division. It is not clear whether the Waltair division

will be retained.

Railway Zone Sadhana Porata Committee convener JV Satyanarayana Murthy told Bizz Buzz that pending construction of zonal headquarters buildings, the authorities should start operationalisation of the new zone by upgrading the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) office as the General Manager's office. He said the construction activity will take two to three years for completion by any parameter.

The Railway Board had sanctioned Rs 107 crore in 2022 when it was rumoured that the laying of foundation stone for the zone during the visit of the Prime Minister to Visakhapatnam was dropped at the eleventh hour from the itinerary due to reported projection being made by the YSRCP leadership that the zone was becoming a reality because of its efforts.

The Chief Minister recently said the State has resolved the railway zone issue, which was in a limbo during the five-year YSRCP regime. "The foundation will be laid for this project by the Prime Minister at an auspicious time either in November or December," he said.

Stating that the matching grant due from the State too will be released on time, Naidu said that he discussed with the Prime Minister the railway connectivity to Amaravati during his recent visit to New Delhi. Thanking the Centre for clearing the project in a short time, he said the Railways is implementing various projects in Andhra Pradesh with an investment of Rs 72,000 crore. Earlier, the Union Cabinet cleared the proposal for sanction of Rs 2245 crore for laying a railway line to Amaravati by linking it with Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata. Earlier, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had blamed the previous YSRCP government for not handing over 53 acres found suitable for constructing the headquarters at Mudasarlova despite approval of the revised Detailed Project Report (DPR). He blamed the YSRCP for the delay in commencing the work on building the headquarters.