Vishaka Railway Zone – An Election Gimmick?

On February 27th, 2019, Union Minister Piyush Goyal had announced the South Coastal Railways with Vishakapatnam as the headquarters. The announcement came just before the elections for obvious reasons and the Minister back then announced that the zone will come into existence in four to five months.

But nothing of such sort happened till now. The Union government in its Budget had not mentioned about the new railway zone. With no allocations for the infrastructural facilities of the new zone, there are doubts if the zone announcement back then is an election gimmick.

Moreover, there was no mention of new projects in the State. If the executive capital is shifted to Vishakapatnam as planned by the State Government. people of the capital region and other parts of the State need more trains for Visakhapatnam. A special railway zone would come handy in that aspect.

The new zone has three railway divisions, such as Vijayawada, Guntur, and Guntakal. The Union Government is already criticized for leaving out the important Waltair division to East Coast Railway Zone.