The Waltair Railway Division may soon be withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the East Coast Railway (ECoR) headquartered in Odisha and come under a proposed new railway division after the formation of Telangana State, reliable railway sources said.
A move is on to create a sub-central or Vishakhapatnam zone as the Telangana Government is going to submit a proposal to this effect to the Centre very soon, the sources added.
Notably, a demand for creation of a railway zone at Vishakhapatnam had been raised during the agitation for formation of Telangana which is now under consideration of the Centre.
The head office of the Waltair Division under the ECoR is now at Vishakhapatnam.
The Telangana Government is keen on creation of a sub-central railway division with its head office at Guntur by bifurcating the Hyderabad-based South Central Zone.
If the plan materialises, more than 30 railway stations in Koraput and Rayagada districts would come under the jurisdiction of the proposed division in Telangana.
Besides these two districts of Odisha, the Vizianagaram-Therubali, Vizianagaram-Palasa and Vizianagaram-Jadgalpur rail routes together accounting for 1,052 km are now under the ECoR. Several big and small industries depend heavily on the Waltair division that came under ECoR in 2003.
Compared to other railway divisions, the ECoR gets maximum revenue from the Waltair division.
It may be recalled that a move to shift the ECoR headquarters from Bhubaneswar had been mooted by former Union Railway Minister V Kishore Dev, who had even submitted a written proposal to this effect to the AK Antony Committee.
According to knowledgeable quarters, the Odisha Government should act quickly and resolutely to retain the Waltair division under the ECoR, failing which the State would incur huge loss of revenue besides losing the scope to demand an expeditious implementation of the ongoing railway projects in Koraput and Rayagada districts. Besides, the ongoing railway projects in Nabarangpur and Malkangiri districts would also be hampered.