Vishakapatnam Railway Zone – A Farce?

BJP led Central Government has announced a Separate Railway Zone with Vishakapatnam as the headquarter before the 2019 elections. The South Coast Railway announcement has happened two years ago but the Center seems to have forgotten about it.

In the first budget after the zone announcement, the Center allocated just three crores. The funds released in the last Budget were also utilized for the development of the Rayagada division. In the recent budget, there is zero allocation for the zone.

There are doubts if the announcement itself is a farce. An Officer on Special Duty was later appointed by the government to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) on the establishment of the zone. The DPR is submitted to the Union Government in August 2019 and nothing has happened after that.

Unless there is political pressure, Visakhapatnam people feel that the SCoR will remain a dream forever.