Centre’s U-Turn On Vizag Railway Zone!

Just before the 2019 general elections the BJP led NDA government announced that it would take steps to set up South Coast Railway (SCoR) zone with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters which is a promise of AP Bifurcation Act. But till date, the government of India did not keep its promise of establishing the railway zone.

It would require at least Rs 3 crore for setting up of the new railway zone but the budget allocations were never made. Now the Union Railway Ministry announced in the Parliament that it had no intentions of setting up a new railway zone and this implies the Vizag railway zone as well.

To BJP MP from Bihar, Ajay Nishad’s question on new railway zones, the Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw replied in a written format that in the current scenario new railway zones are not possible.

Post the announcement of SCoR zone in February 2019, a Detailed Project Report (DPR), was prepared by the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) and submitted to the Railway Board. But neither the Railway Ministry nor the Railway Board did not approve the DPR and is lying pending for the last two years now.

The DPR suggested construction of the zonal headquarters office requires 20 acres of land and it is available between the DRM’s Office and the Officers Rest House in Wireless Colony in Vizag while the estimated cost is quoted at Rs 111.02 crore.

Upon the latest announcement, the people of AP, especially Vizag are deeply disappointed. A section of the public expressed their anger at BJP for not implementing any of the promises made during the bifurcation in Parliament and also mentioned in the Bifurcation Act. Another section of people have given up the hope that AP would get nothing from New Delhi but whatever is left in the state will be gone into private hands like the Vizag steel plant.

The ruling party of the state is yet to react to the Railway Ministry’s latest statement.