A separate railway zone for Andhra Pradesh – South Coast Railway Zone – came into existence on Monday, as officials formally launched operations at the new district headquarters in Visakhapatnam.
Union Minister for Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, along with State Whip Pandalam Ashok, officially unveiled the welcome board of the South Coast Railway zone at AS Beta railway station in the Andhra-Odisha border district of Ichapuram mandal in the morning.
Speaking to reporters after performing the traditional inaugural rituals and planting a sapling to mark the occasion, Rammohan Naidu recalled that he had campaigned for the cause of the Visakhapatnam railway zone several times in Parliament and recalled holding a protest at the Ichapuram railway station during the agitation for the railway zone.
Expressing happiness at the launch of the South Coast Railway Zone while serving as Union Minister, Rammohan Naidu said that the administrative operations of the new railway zone have officially started from Visakhapatnam from Monday.
“With the new railway area, we will now be able to solve our regional issues more effectively,” he said.
He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan on behalf of the people of Srikakulam district for their support in setting up the railway zone.
Meanwhile, state Tourism Minister Kandula Durgesh also expressed happiness over the commencement of operations of the South Coast Railway Zone and termed it as the fulfillment of a decades-old dream of the people of Andhra Pradesh.
Durgesh expressed confidence that the new railway zone will significantly boost the transportation and tourism sectors in the state.
As per a gazette notification issued by the Union Railway Ministry on May 5, the South Coast Railway has been carved out from the existing East Coast Railway zone headquartered at Bhubaneswar and the Secunderabad-based South Central Railway zone in Hyderabad.
The new South Coast Railway zone includes Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal divisions. The Waltair Division of the East Coast Railroad was divided into two parts. A part of it, called Rayagada Division, was made part of the present East Coast Railway area and the remaining part, renamed Visakhapatnam Division, became part of the new South Coast Railway.
The existing jurisdiction of the Khurda Road section of the East Coast Railway, which includes the 53 km Palasa-Ichchapuram line, will now be part of the Visakhapatnam section of the South Coast Railway.
The new railway area will have a total length of 463 km, including the Ichapuram-Palasa-Visakhapatnam-Duvvada railway line (270 km); Vizianagaram-Koneru (102 km); Naupada-Baralakhmundi Junction (39 km); Bobili-Salur intersection (17 km); Besides peripheral lines like Simhachalam North – Duvvada bypass; Vadalapudi – Duvada; Visakhapatnam – Jajayapalem (total 35 km).
