The process of establishing the South Coast Railway Zone with Visakhapatnam as its center is progressing rapidly. The Railway Board has taken up the appointment of Heads of Department for the new zone. The notification for the South Coast Zone is likely to be issued within a month once this is completed. The appointed day will be announced in December or Sankranti.
The process of reorganizing the South Central Railway and establishing the South Coast Zone with Visakhapatnam as its center has accelerated. The Railway Board, which appointed Sandeep Mathur as the GM of the new zone in June, is now focusing on the appointment of Heads of Department. It appointed AP Sharma as the Principal Chief Electrical Engineer on Wednesday.
A few days ago, it posted Amit Gupta as the Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer. It has given additional responsibilities to an officer working in the East Coast Zone as the Head of Finance Department. It is making a series of appointments. It is reported that PhDs will be appointed for the other departments in a few days.
Once the appointment of PhDs is completed, a notification will be issued on the reorganisation of the South Central Railway and the creation of a new South Coast zone. According to railway sources, this will come by the end of August or the first week of September.
A senior official said that the appointment day will be announced within 3-4 months of the notification. From that day, the activities of the South Central and South Coast zones will be carried out separately. Railway officials estimate that the South Coast appointed day may be in December or January.
PHODs are to be appointed for the departments of Operations, Security, Vigilance, RPF, Civil Engineering, Constructions, Signal-Telecom, Personnel, Commercial and Stores. The South Coast Zone will be formed with Visakhapatnam as its center along with 3 divisions of South Central Railway and a part of the East Coast Zone centered in Bhubaneswar.
The 6 divisions in South Central Railway will be reduced to three. South Central Railway will have Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Nanded. South Coast will have Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal. East Coast will have Khurda Road, Sambalpur and a new division Rayagada. Raichur-Wadi section is currently under Guntakal division. The Railway Board has taken a decision to transfer it to Secunderabad division.