Railway Board sanctions estimates for new rly zone

Visakhapatnam: The long-standing wish of the people of Visakhapatnam on the formation of a new railway zone with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters moves a step forward as Railway Board sanctioned detailed estimates for construction of headquarters building in Visakhapatnam.

Meeting Waltair divisional railway manager (DRM) Saurabh Prasad here on Thursday, BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao discussed various important issues related to the new railway zone and railway development.

Visakhapatnam railway zone had been a major demand for the people of Visakhapatnam and Uttarandhra for several decades.

After GVL’s meeting with chairperson of the Railway Board Jaya Varma Sinha and raising the issue a few days ago, the Railway Board sanctioned detailed estimates for the construction of the new South Coast Railway zone with its headquarters in Visakhapatnam with a budget of Rs 106 crore.

Last week, the Railway Board issued orders assigning the construction work of the new Visakhapatnam Railway Zone headquarters to Central Administrative Officer (Construction), Bhubaneswar with a directive to undertake the construction work after getting designs sanctioned and issuing tenders.

After the meeting, Narasimha Rao said that the headquarters of the Visakhapatnam railway zone is proposed to be constructed at Mudasarlova area where the state government has agreed to provide 52 acre land in lieu of the railway land taken by the state government as a compensatory measure. However, the state government is inordinately delaying handing over of the land to the railways, he pointed out.

The MP informed that as soon as the identified land is handed over to the railways, the construction process of the Visakhapatnam zonal headquarters will commence.

Further, he assured that the construction of the zonal headquarters will start soon once the identified land in Mudasarlova is handed over to the railways by the revenue authorities.