The undue delay in the announcement of the new railway zone for Andhra Pradesh is being seen by the people of the region, trade union leaders, railway employees and also leaders of various political as a ploy to deceive them.
Once the zone is declared, an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) has to be appointed and a project office set up to begin work on construction of the required facilities at the headquarters.
Though ruling party leaders claim that ‘technical issues’ were responsible for the delay, railway officials rule out technical problems and say zone formation was only a ‘political decision’.
Railway land
“Visakhapatnam has over 700 acres of railway land in the city, with over 200 acres in the vicinity of the railway station. Augmentation of the existing infrastructure and adding railway assets is not a difficult task provided the authorities concerned have the will to do it. With Visakhapatnam poised to become the headquarters of the proposed railway zone in Andhra Pradesh, augmentation of infrastructure facilities at the earliest assumes all the more importance,” says B. Gyananandam, a retired railway official, who has over three decades of technical experience.
A terminal station
Developing Visakhapatnam Junction as a terminal station like Chennai and Howrah, by creating a third entrance towards the Chavulamadhum end, adding four more pit lines at the existing Coaching Complex, and construction of four new platforms on the Gnanapuram side by demolishing the old railway quarters are some of the proposals, which need immediate attention.
“The people of Visakhapatnam region are soft-natured and do not wish to antagonise others. Visakhapatnam has all that is required to become the capital of the State be it rail, air, sea and road connectivity, industries, central government establishments, the biggest city but the people were prepared to forego it thinking that the Government would fulfil their demand of setting up of the new railway zone with headquarters here,” said YSR Congress city president Gudiwada Amarnadh.
“This ‘submissive attitude’ of the people of the region and the apathy of elected leaders, most of them hailing from other parts of the State, is responsible for the inordinate delay,” he felt.
Roundtable today
The new railway zone, with headquarters in Visakhapatnam, will lead to the overall development of north Andhra region. The zone should have 45,000 employees and a major share of the posts would go to youths from the region, said Mr. Amarnadh, who announced his decision to launch an indefinite fast from April 14 (Ambedkar Jayanthi), if the Centre failed to make an announcement on the zone by then.
The YSRC has mobilised the support of all political parties including the ruling TDP and BJP to fight for the cause of the long-cherished demand of the people of the region.
A roundtable will be organised at the AMCOSA Hall, near Zilla Parishad on Wednesday.
“CPI-M, CPI, Congress and Lok Satta have confirmed their participation. We also met TDP leaders, BJP State president and MP K. Haribabu and BJP city president M. Nagendra on Tuesday and invited them for the round table. Ch. Gandhi of E Co RSU, K.S. Murty of E Co RSC, intellectuals, retired railway employees and students are expected to participate.
