BHUBANESWAR: The creation of the South Coast Railway (SCoR) has left the East Coast Railway (ECoR) with 461 km less route length, the just-released system map reveals.
The comparison for March and June shows that ECoR’s route network has shrunk from 3,169.48 km to 2,708.16 km, a reduction of 461.32 km translating to nearly 15 per cent.
The loss of route length follows the bifurcation of the erstwhile Waltair division and transfer of several sections in Andhra Pradesh to the newly-created SCoR.
Before the restructuring, ECoR comprised the Khurda Road, Sambalpur and Waltair divisions. While Sambalpur division remained unaffected, Khurda Road division lost 53.57 km of railway lines located in Andhra Pradesh.
The biggest impact was on the Waltair division, long regarded as one of the most strategically important divisions of Indian Railways because of its high freight earnings from mineral transportation. Following the reorganisation, a substantial portion of the division was transferred to SCoR, leaving ECoR with the newly-created Rayagada division having a route length of 698.69 km against Waltair’s earlier 1,106.44 km.
The reduction has also widened the gap between ECoR and the new railway zone. While ECoR now has a route length of 2,708.16 km, SCoR begins operations with 3,532.41 km spread across Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal divisions. The new zone is larger than ECoR by 824.25 km.
A similar trend is visible in running track length. ECoR’s running track network stands at 4,975.83 km compared to SCoR’s 6,455.44 km, leaving the Odisha-based zone with nearly 1,480 km less track under its jurisdiction.
After the restructuring, of ECoR’s total route length, 2,350 km lies within Odisha. Only 115.28 km of ECoR’s routes remain in Andhra Pradesh and 242.8 km in Chhattisgarh. The South Eastern Railway has 668.413 km route in the state.
In comparison, 97 per cent of Andhra Pradesh’s railway network has been brought under SCoR with just 79.3 km in Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.
Analysts observe that the reorganisation has ended ECoR’s strong footprint in Andhra Pradesh, which had been a defining feature of the zone since its formation in 2003. The overall track length in ECoR too has shrunk from 7,429.3 km to 6,072.5 km.
TNIE reached out to ECoR general manager Parameshwar Funkwal and CPRO Deepak Rout but their response is awaited.