VIJAYAWADA: Finally, the Central government on Wednesday announced a new railway zone for Visakhapatnam -- a key promise made in the AP Reorganisation Act- 2014 -- ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Steel City on Friday.
The proposed zone christened the South Coast Railway or SCoR for short will be headquartered in Vizag and will comprise the Guntakal, Guntur and Vijayawada divisions.
Announcing the zone at a press conference in New Delhi, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal clarified that the Waltair division will be divided with one part merging with the Vijayawada division under SCoR and the other being headquartered at Rayagada in Odisha under the East Coast Railway (ECoR).
The announcement on Wednesday evening came amid threats by the Pratyeka Hoda Sadhana Samithi and the ruling TDP to stage demonstrations during the Prime Minister’s visit.
It immediately sparked celebrations in the BJP camp while the response from the TDP was muted. The Opposition YSRC welcomed the announcement and claimed credit too.
So elated was the BJP state leadership that its senior leaders, who were incidentally in Vizag to oversee arrangements for Modi’s visit, celebrated at the Vizag railway station. BJP state chief Kanna Lakshminarayana, former union minister D Purandeswari, MLA P Vishnu Kumar Raju and others took part in the celebrations.
“We were expecting an announcement by Modi himself. However, with the model code of conduct coming into force in view of the MLC elections, the party leadership might have announced the railway zone ahead of Modi’s visit,’’ a BJP leader told TNIE.
Though welcoming the move, TDP leader and Srikakulam MP K Ram Mohan Naidu said his struggle will continue as seven stations of Srikakulam are still in Khurda Road Division - Palasa, Jhadupudi, Mandasa Road, Summadevi, Ichapuram, Baruva, and Sompeta. “We demand that these stations also be included in the South Coast Railway zone,” he said.
The creation of a new zone means that the existing South Central Railway (SCR), which used to cover divisions in AP and Telangana as well as some others in neighbouring Maharashtra, will have less number of divisions under its jurisdiction. The SCR will now have only Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Nanded divisions in both the States.
Piyush Goyal didn’t go into the details and confined himself to a brief statement. Recalling that the Reorganisation Act required the Centre to examine the feasibility of a railway zone in Vizag, he said it was decided to go ahead to create the new zone with headquarters in Vizag after consultations with all the stakeholders.
The Pratyeka Hoda Sadhana Samithi and other activists who have been demanding the new zone initially welcomed it but soon questioned the viability of SCoR, claiming that 70 per cent revenue would go to the ECoR and only the rest to the SCoR.
The main cause of their displeasure is the Centre’s decision to divide the Waltair division and merge one part of it with Vijayawada division and make the other part as a new division with headquarters in Rayagada under the ECoR. However, the BJP countered the argument, pointing out that the Centre had to take into consideration the interests of Odisha as well.
PM’s visit as scheduled
Visakhapatnam: Despite heightened tensions between India and Pakistan in the wake of surgical strikes, there will be no change in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to Vizag on March 1, said BJP state president Kanna Lakshminarayana, who is overseeing arrangements for PM’s meeting, here on Wednesday.
Waltair division to be divided
Waltair division will be divided with one part merging with Vijayawada division under the SCoR and the other being headquartered at Rayagada under the ECoR