New Railway zone a booster shot

By announcing a separate railway zone with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters, the Centre has fulfilled the long cherished dreams of the people of the North Andhra region. It gained momentum from 1996 after the formation of East Coast Railway Zone was announced but it grew louder after bifurcation of the State in 2014. 

It is culmination of four decades of struggle as the demand was first voiced by the late Tenneti Viswanadham in Parliament forty years ago. The zone will give a big push to organisations like Eastern Naval Command, NSTL, BHEL, BARC,HPCL Refinery ,Hinduja Power Project and holy place of Tirupati come under this zone. But it is a great loss to this zone as the Kothavalasa - Kirandul ( KK) and Koraput - Rayagada (KR) are delinked from the new  zone.

According to one estimation only Rs 500 crore business is left with the SCOR whereas nearly Rs 6000 crore would go to ECOR .However with the creation of the SCOR the proceedings and jobs will be distributed  between two States Viz AP and Karnataka, otherwise Odisha has to be part of it.

Pratapa Reddy Yaramala, 

TiruvuruPolitical move, nothing else

A much awaited demand of north Andhra region and an assurance under AP Reorganisation Act i.e, the creation of new Railway zone for Visakhapatnam has been fulfilled by the central government just before next general elections. But it has left no one in elation as the zone is given by the Centre with left hand and the existing division is broken with right hand. 

That the revenue generating KK line being kept out of the zone is certainly a disappointment to the state. It seems to be a political move of the ruling party to appear obeying the demands of AP, yet not hurting the sentiments of Odhisa at one stroke. Just before the polls, to bailout the ruling party only ballot trains are being put on tracks, not bullet trains. 

Dr D V G Sankararao, Nellimarla

Call it SK Rly

I  am  glad  that  Vizag  Rly. Zone is announced . I thank the Rly. Minister.  The name South Coastal Railway is not good.  It will be called  S C Railway . S C  can mean South Central or South Coastal. There will be confusion. So it is better to call it S K (Seema  Kosta)  Railway

 V V Satyanarayana Setty, Tirupati