Railways to retain Waltair division in truncated form?

Visakhapatnam: Setting at rest on its future, the Railways has reportedly decided to retain Waltair division in a truncated form after allotting most of its area to the newly carved out Rayagada division.

At the time of announcing the formation of South Coast Railway (SCoR) zone with headquarters in Visakhapatnam following an overwhelming demand from the locals, the Centre in 2019 said that parts of Waltair division will be merged with Rayagada and Vijayawada divisions, causing a lot of resentment among the local activists and political leaders.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the zone early last month, recently a circular is going viral on retaining the Waltair zone, considered as an iconic division for its glorious past and performance since inception for earning both freight and passenger revenue.

SCoR will now consist of truncated Waltair division and Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal divisions. As per the earlier notification, the zone would have comprised reorganised Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal divisions.

According to the order, which has gone viral, one part of Waltair division comprising sections between stations Palasa-Visakhapatnam-Duvvada, Kuneru-Vizianagaram, Naupada Jn-Parlakhemundi, Bobbili Jn-Salur, Simhachalam North-Duvvada bypass, Vadlapudi-Duvvada and Visakhapatnam Steel Plant-Jagayapalem (around 410 km) will be retained as Waltair division. It will be renamed as Visakhapatnam division under the SCoR.

When contacted, a senior railway official told Bizz Buzz that they are yet to get communication on the truncated Waltair division.