MP Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao has urged the Centre to announce the creation of new railway zone with headquarters in Visakhapatnam without any further delay.
Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha during the Zero Hour, the MP noted that the Union government had assured in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 that a new railway zone would be set up in Andhra Pradesh comprising three Divisions of South Central Railway: Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal and Waltair Division of East Coast Railway.
The demand for a new zone with Visakhapatnam as headquarters was in existence for almost a decade. Waltair Division is the highest revenue in ECoR, earning about 50 per cent of the total annual revenue of the zone.
Natural advantage
Visakhapatnam, the fastest growing city in Asia, has the natural advantage of having two major ports, availability of abundant land bank near the Railway Station, the biggest Loco Shed and an excellent coach maintenance depot.
All these advantages meet the requirements of the new railway zone and make Visakhapatnam the ideal choice for location of its headquarters.
