New SCoR railway zone going to be a reality

Visakhapatnam: With Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu inviting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay foundation stone for the new South Coast Railway (SCoR) zone confirms that the long-pending project is all set to get on track.

During the YSRCP government, land was not allotted for the construction of the new SCoR zone. If the land was provided back then, the operation for the new railway zone would have been operational by now.

The YSRCP government identified 53 acre land at Arilova for the project. Of it, 30 acre was in dispute. When the railway authorities visited the land to commence the project works, the locals raised objections to it due to the prevailing disputes.

Meanwhile, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw repeatedly announced that the YSRCP government had not allotted the required land to commence the new railway zone.

The minister attended a number of programmes in the Waltair division and he made it clear that the site proposed by the YSRCP government in the past was not suitable for the construction purpose. He said that the Centre is ready to start the work within 24 hours if the required land gets allotted.

Even as the previous YSRCP government did not pay any attention to allot an alternative site during the five-year rule, the YSRCP government in the state and the BJP government at the Centre blamed each other in the past and the new railway zone failed to take shape.

After the TDP-Jana Sena-BJP alliance government came to power, progress over the new railway zone has gained momentum.

Civil aviation minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu discussed with Waltair division railway manager Saurabh Prasad on the delay in taking the project forward.

Given the recent developments, it is expected that all the pending projects are likely to commence soon. Among them, the new railway zone is included in the priority list.

However, Waltair division has been carved out of SCoR. But the public representatives of the Andhra Pradesh government appealed to the Centre that Waltair division holds a lot of significance in the SCoR and ensure it to be a part of the new railway zone by making a few changes if required.