Tenders called for construction of South Coast Railway office in Vizag

Work on the highly anticipated zone finally seems to have got on track, with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw calling for e-tenders in a post on X; time given for project completion is 24 months

The long-pending proposal for establishment of the South Coast Railway (SCoR) Zone, with headquarters in Visakhapatnam, is likely to materialise soon.

The East Coast Railway (ECoR) headquarters in Bhubaneswar has invited e-tenders for construction of the General Manager’s office complex and other associated works in Visakhapatnam.

The closing date for the tenders is December 27, 2024. The pre-bid conference will be held at 11 a.m. on December 2, 2024, and bidding will start on December 13, 2024.

The GM’s office complex will have 12 floors, including two basement floors, ground floor and nine floors, which will be constructed at an estimated cost of ₹149.16 crore.

Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw posted the tender notice on ‘X’ on Sunday morning. On November 19, the Railway Board said that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the South Coast Railway ‘is under review’ in response to a query from K. Eswar, under the RTI Act. It was mentioned in the RTI reply that 52.2 acres of land at Mudasarlova in the city was handed over to the Railways by the State government. The RTI reply also mentioned that presently, no time frame has been fixed for inauguration of the zone in response to another query.

The tender notice seems to have put speculation at rest.

The announcement of the South Coast Railway (SCoR) zone, with Visakhapatnam as the headquarters, was made by then Railway Minister Piyush Goyal before the general elections in February 2019.

Long-pending demand

The feeling of alienation among the people of north Andhra, in combined Andhra Pradesh, began when South Central Railway (SCR) zone was formed in 1966 to meet the aspirations of the Telugu people, but the three districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam were not included in it. The failure of the successive governments to meet the demand for merger of Waltair Division with SCR added to their angst.

In 1996, then Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan wanted to have a new zone in his constituency at Hajipur, and announced six more zones in the country. The move proved, beyond doubt, that “where there is ‘political’ will, there is a way”.

The formation of ECoR, with its headquarters in Bhubaneswar, resulted in further neglect of north Andhra, and led to the demand for creation of a new zone in Visakhapatnam. The demand grew louder due to the extension of the popular and highly patronised trains like Visakha Express and Prashanti Express to Bhubaneswar, decrease in berth quota for Visakhapatnam and diversion of long-distance trains via Duvvada.

The provision for establishment of a new railway zone made in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, came as a shot in the arm for the people of north Andhra, to intensify their stir for the new zone.

Published - November 24, 2024 08:10 pm IST