Rail staffer says split SCR to create Vizag zone

Hyderabad: The South Central Railway Mazdoor Union has come out with a suggestion to resolve the deadlock over the creation of a new railway zone, to be headquartered in Visakhapatnam.

It has suggested bifurcation of South Central Railway and hiving off the Guntakal, Guntur and Vijayawada divisions into the new zone. This would not disturb the East Coast Railway Zone for the time being.

It suggested that the new zone could have its headquarters at Visakhapatnam. It said both the ECR and SCR could share the Visakhapatnam railway station, as is done elsewhere.

Speaking to this newspaper, SCR zonal general secretary B. Shankar Rao said there would be no problem in sharing the Visakhapatnam station. “The Kolkata station is shared by both Eastern and South Eastern Railways, Nagpur is shared by East Central and Central Railways and Mumbai by Western and Central Railway Zones.”

“If the government is sincere about establishing a railway zone at Visakhapatnam, this is the only alternative for the time being,” he said. “Once the zone is established, we can bargain for inclusion of Andhra areas presently served by East Coast Zone. If we put a pre-condition that the Vizag division has to be part of the new zone, it will not be considered by Railway Board due to stiff opposition from Odisha.”