New Railway zone for Vizag not feasible, says railway report

The Andhra Pradesh government has been working on the implementation of a demand put forward to the central government as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. Apart from the Special Status for Andhra, the central government had also promised a new railway zone for Vizag. A report for the same was submitted last year to the Railway department against the demand raised.

However, reportedly, the senior officials of the Railway Board prepared a report which said this demand “vitiates the pan-national character of the Indian Railways” and goes against the idea of the “forefathers of the nation”, who unified 42 small railways of the princely states into six zones in the 1950s.

While checking on the operations of the demand made by the government, the report made by the Railway officer also said that a further break-up of the East Coast Railway zone will create operational bottlenecks in the loading of coal and minerals in what is currently the highest loading zone in India. It says the three divisions in the zone cannot be separated.

They pointed out the biggest drawback to being the financial burden on the health of Railways “in a catastrophic way”, through capital expenditure and recurring expenses.

The report also spoke about the problematic areas of the demand raised by TDP like, “lurking of the financial crisis”, “choked routes”, and “demand for more and more services” since the Indian Railways is already struggling with these things on daily basis.

“Any further fragmentation of Railways will be like putting many nails in the coffin of the Indian Railways as there is no need for any new zone, operationally or administratively.” said the Railway official.