Will Waltair Division be a part of SCoR?

Visakhapatnam: Although the New South Coast Railway Zone with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters was announced in 2019, its foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Visakhapatnam in 2025. Even after six years of the announcement of the new railway zone, there is still no clarity on whether Waltair Division will be part of it or not. The people of North Andhra have always been demanding to continue the new railway zone without carving out Waltair Division. However, no such official announcement has been received from the Centre so far. The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the new railway zone administration building in Visakhapatnam during the public sabha held on January 8. Political leaders and public representatives have already brought inclusion of division to the Centre’s attention several times.

Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha MP M. Sribharat met Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and brought the concerns over Waltair Division to his notice. Apart from submitting a bunch of proposals to improve services, meeting long pending demands and connectivity, the Highlighting the sentimental value of the Coastal Andhra people associated with the division, the MP emphasised the need to retain the Waltair Division in the proposed SCoR zone.

Waltair Division’s origin traces back to the erstwhile state-owned East Coast Railway, which came into existence in the year 1893 with the construction of the Cuttack-Khurda Road-Puri line. It covered a distance of 96-kms and its subsequent link up along the East Coast up to Vijayawada - junction point of Southern Mahratta Railway and Nizam’s Guaranteed State Railway. A total stretch of 1,280-km of the ECoR, stretching the entire coastal stretch of Cuttack - Khurda - Road Puri Palasa - Vizianagaram - Visakhapatnam Kakinada Rajahmundry-Vijayawada was opened between1893 to 1896.

Later, due to a change in the policy of the British government, the Bengal Nagpur Railway, popularly known as the B.N.R, took over the northern section of ECoR from Vizianagaram to Cuttack. This included the branch line of Puri by 23 January, 1902.

Soon after the development of Visakhapatnam as a major port sanctioned by the Secretary of State in 1924, the Railway Board on behalf of the Government of India appointed B.N.R as agent. Even as Waltair continued to be under the management control of B.N.R. until 1952, it became part of the Eastern Railway at the time of the re-grouping of the Indian Railways. The merger of BNR into Eastern Railway, however, did not last long and in 1955, South Eastern Railway emerged. The construction of the KK line by Dandakaranya-Bolangir-Kiriburu (DBK) railway project took shape to meet real engineering challenges due to difficult terrain conditions in the Eastern Ghat Sections.

With the movement of iron ore traffic from the Bailadila iron ore range at Kirandul and Bacheli, this line became a real boon to the Waltair Division in terms of income deriving from freight.

The construction of the K-R Line, however, was taken up in the late eighties to augment the line capacity and provide an alternative route for the increased iron ore movement to Vizag Port and Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. From 2003, Waltair Division became a part of the newly formed East Coast Railway.