Special Railway Zone for Andhra Pradesh is a long standing demand. People were demanding the Vishakapatnam zone to be separated from the existing East Coast Railway Zone and form a new railway zone along with Vijayawada, Guntur and Gunthakal divisions. AP was promised the special zone during the bifurcation and a committee was formed to study the feasibility.
The committee submitted its report couple of days ago to the Union government in a sealed cover. However the content of the report is not revealed but sources in the government tells us that Andhra Pradesh is in for rude shock with committee report not favouring the special railway zone.
It is not exactly known why the report suggested so but it is said that BJD, the ruling party of Orissa whose support is crucial for BJP in Rajya Sabha exerted pressure on the government accordingly as Orissa will be at losing end if Vishakapatnam zone separates from East Coast Railway Zone. Now the onus is on Venkaiah Naidu to exert pressure on Modi and win it for AP.
