Save Our Heritage Division: Protests held in Vizag for Waltair Division

The decision to bifurcate Waltair division has clearly not gone down well with many sections in Vizag. Protesting the centre’s call to incorporate one part of the Waltair division in the newly announced South Coastal Railway and convert the remaining portion into a new division with headquarters at Rayagada under East Coast Railway in Odisha, several groups joined hands in Vizag on Thursday.

Raising slogans under “Save Our Heritage Division”, several railway unions organised a rally in the city and demanded that the Waltair division is retained completely by the South Coastal Railway. The rally by the workers union of East Coast Railway was organised from the Visakhapatnam Railway Station to the city’s DRM office.

Speaking on the occasion, Divisional Coordinator Damodar questioned the centre’s decision to announce Vizag railway zone without the portion of the Waltair Division, which generates a revenue of about Rs 7600 crores. He urged the Government to reconsider its decision before meeting the Divisional Manager.

Several other members of the union too resented the Government’s move and opined that the decision would leave the Waltair division’s employees with plenty to worry about.

In case you didn’t know…

On 27 February, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announced that a new railway zone, named South Coastal Railway (SCoR), will be formed with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters. The zone will comprise the existing Guntakal, Guntur, and Vijayawada Division. Goyal, as mentioned before in the article, further stated that the Waltair division will be divided into two parts.