Vishakhapatanam: At a time the railway ministry is stating that it will create a new zone, South Coast Railway (SCoR), with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters, officials are facing trouble in arranging land for the creation of the headquarters.
The railways has discussed three sites: 20 acres at Wireless Colony, adjacent to the DRM office at Dondaparty; wagons' workshop exists at Vadlapudi and Mudasarlova, amid green hills.
The railways is interested in Mudasarlova as it is free from pollution, is located along BRTS road, and is close to the sea and the national highway. Getting land documents from the GVMC is turning out to be a task.
"The GVMC has not yet cleared the land on record despite an agreement signed in 2016 over transfer of railways' 27 acres of land for GVMC's projects in the past. We gave the land, but the GVMC did not officially transfer the 52.22 acres of land as per the agreement," a railway source told Deccan Chronicle.
After receiving the formal agreement letter from the GVMC, the railway officials went to Mudasarlova several times to mark out the land but faced difficulties in identifying the site. People living there objected to the railway officials’ visit, claiming that they were the actual owners of the land, sources said.
The railways then knocked the doors of GVMC higher authorities and AP ministers but could not get a satisfactory response. There has been no progress on the matter so far, the railway sources added.
When contacted, a senior railway official said, "We are disappointed with the GVMC's way of responding to our repeated pleas for transferring the Mudasarlova land. We will start work on finalising a site at Mudasarlova for the SCoR headquarters' office soon after the GVMC clears the land."
Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently said that the SCoR zone was inevitable and was officially approved by the Centre. The BJP government announced it in 2019. So far, Rs 170 crore was allocated for setting up SCoR in the 2020-21 Union Budget.
