BHUBANESWAR: Even as the revenue-rich Kottavalasa-Kirandul line (KK line) will not be excluded from the East Coast Railway (ECoR) zone and be part of the proposed Rayagada division, political heat over the issue is far from over.
The central cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday approved that Waltair division, now under ECoR, will be divided into two parts. While one part will be converted into a new division headquartered at Rayagada, the other would be renamed as Visakhapatnam division to create SCoR zone. Once operationalised, SCoR will have four divisions - Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal while ECoR will have three divisions as usual and Rayagada will replace Waltair, which will cease to exist.
The 446-km Kothavalasa-Kirandul line that runs through the mineral-rich regions of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and hill sections of Eastern Ghats through Araku Valley was the bone of contention in the previous bifurcation plan of Waltair as ECoR would have faced significant revenue loss, had the line been transferred to SCoR.
The New Indian Express had extensively reported the issue highlighting the concerns of Odisha. Opposition political parties had protested the previous DPR and demanded its modification.
State BJP spokesperson Sudipta Ray said as assured by Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, no railway line from Odisha has been transferred to SCoR and the KK line has been retained with ECoR. “After the jurisdictional modification, the concerns that ECoR would lose huge revenue are now put to rest. The new division in the tribal hinterland will facilitate communication and boost the economy of the region,” he said.
Former Union minister and Congress leader Srikant Jena, who had written to the prime minister seeking his intervention, thanked TNIE for raising the issue at the right time. “We have no objection in creating a railway zone for Andhra Pradesh, but not at the cost of Odisha. The railway lines of the state now under South Eastern Railway (SER) and South East Central Railway (SECR) zones should be merged with ECoR at the earliest,” he demanded.
Senior BJD MLA Prasanna Acharya said, “It is good that they retained the KK line after protests. But a substantial portion of rail lines that pass through mineral-bearing districts of Sundargarh, Jharsuguda and Keonjhar is still out of ECoR jurisdiction, thereby losing huge revenue. These sections should immediately be brought under its control and the zone be reorganised,” said the former minister.
The Ministry of Railways, however, made it clear that the revenue in the form of GST that a state gets from the Centre is not distributed on the basis of railway zones. “The revenue collected by railway zones comes to the kitty of Indian Railways and is distributed as per the state boundary, no matter which railway line comes under whose jurisdiction. Zones are created as per operational viability. Even if Barbil in Keonjhar falls under SER, the revenue earned due to freight transportation will come to Odisha,” the senior official clarified.