‘Vizag Railway Zone’ Takes A Hit!

As part of AP Bifurcation Act, the Centre has announced Vizag Railway Zone last year. But its existence is yet to come effective and it is likely to take more time, all thanks to the Corona times.

The lockdown has severely affected the Railways revenues and there is a lot of uncertainty on the resumption of the services. The officials say that Railways is unlikely to operate till December or unitl the vaccine arrives.

Because of the lockdown, Vizag’s Waltari division has posted Rs 1000 crore losses which is thirty percent minus. Last year from passengers, the division has made revenue of Rs 562.18 crore and this year from April to July, the revenue was just Rs 10.33 crore. Also with goods transport, the revenue was just Rs 1878 crore against Rs 2680.74 crore which is off last year’s.

This has impacted on the railway zone formation. According to the officials, the formation of the zone might cost around Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore and currently the railways is not in a position to allocate this amount of budget due to the losses incurred in the last six months.

But the officials are hopeful that the Vizag Railway zone might come into effect probably in the first quarter of next year. If the lockdown hadn’t been there, the railway zone would have formed fully by December this year.