Guntakal rail division out of track
It has the largest broad guage route in SCR zone.
Anantapur: Guntakal Railway Division, one of the six divisions of South Central Railway zone (SCR) of the Indian Railways, continues to be neglected. It is a long pending demand for upgrading it as zonal headquarters also was being ignored. The headquarters of the division is at Guntakal and its zonal headquarters is at Secunderabad. The Guntakal division is second in terms of route kilometres after Secunderabad railway division. It was created in the year 1956 as a part of the Southern Railway zone and later was transferred to South Central Railway zone on October 2, 1977. Located at Karnataka border covers the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
In its jurisdiction, the division covers a total distance of 1302.9 km in Telugu states and a distance of 142.2 km in Karnataka. The division has the largest broad gauge route of 1,430.01 km and has the second largest running track of 1,872.47 km in the South Central Railway zone. The lines and sections under the jurisdiction of the Guntakal division are listed below Guntakal division generates revenue mainly from tourism and freight. There are many religious destinations as well as natural tourism spots which draws tourists from various places. The freight revenue is due to the availability of large number natural resources, industries based on these resources and nearby ports.
CPI district secretary D. Jagadish observed the Guntakal division has all possibilities to upgrade as the zonal head quarters. “The state and central governments are neglecting the Guntakal division on lines for located in backward Rayalaseema region. Guntakal has all eligibilities to get up gradation as zonal head quarters following state division,” he said.
Rayalaseema Intellectual Forum convener Dr Geyanand stressed need priority for the development of Guntakal division during post bifurcation packages. A passenger R.V. Badarinath lamented the Railway authorities were neglecting to operate trains to Chennai from Anantapur district. "We have to depend on buses during every journey to Chennai", he said.