The Hindu : New railway zone to become operational on April 1

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 13, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

New railway zone to become operational on April 1

By Our Special Correspondent

HUBLI Feb. 12. The South-Western Railway Zone, with headquarters at Hubli, will become operational only on April 1, though it will be inaugurated on Friday by the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee.

For, April 1, 2003 was fixed as the day on which all the six new zones, including the South Western Zone, will become functional as per a notification issued by the Railway Board in July last.

Enquiries reveal that even after the inauguration by the Prime Minister, the three divisions which form part of the new zone — Hubli, Bangalore, and Mysore — will continue to be technically under the respective parent zones, namely the South Central and Southern Railways, even as the preparatory work for establishing the new zone gets under way.

Therefore, the chief of the zone will continue in his present designation as Officer on Special Duty, and will be re-designated as General Manager only after April 1.

The only change that may take place after February 14 is that Aga, Officer on Special Duty for the new zone, who is now working with Bangalore as his base, may shift his office to Hubli, the new zonal headquarters.

Team starts work

A skeletal team of the new railway zone has already started functioning from premises in the Hubli Division. It has started the preparatory work for establishing the new zone. At the moment, the procedure to seek the option of the employees — whether they want to work in the new zone — under the South Central and Southern Railways is nearing completion, according to information.

However, there will be a repetition of the procedure in the Tornagal-Bellary-Guntakal section. For, the option of employees working in the section had been sought earlier, as the section had been recommended for transfer to the Guntakal Division, with the South Central Railway taking immediate steps to integrate it with the division. Those who had not opted for the Guntakal Division have been transferred, and the procedure for seeking the option of the employees would have to be redone, since the Railway Board has decided to retain the line under the Hubli division, and a notification modifying the earlier order is to be issued shortly.

The six weeks between the inauguration of the new zone and its commissioning will be used to tie up the loose ends and establish control over communication, which is the most important part of the operation of railway services by the zone. The communication system, which links Hubli, Bangalore, and Mysore with their existing zonal headquarters of Secunderabad and Chennai, will have to be revamped to converge the communication channels in Hubli, the new zonal headquarters.

Discussion on site

There has been a preliminary discussion about a suitable site for establishing the zonal headquarters. The headquarters will have to be gradually built on the vast stretch of land owned by the Railways in Hubli. From April 1, the zonal headquarters will function from makeshift offices located in the premises of the office of the Divisional Railway Manager, Hubli.

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