Industrial Upsurge in East Coast Zone
The East Coast Zone is one of the blue chip zones in the Indian Railways. It is one of the 16 zones of Indian railways, which came into existence on April 1st, 2003. The geographical extent of this zone extends to more than three states including whole of Orissa with parts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Vishakhapatnam, areas of North Eastern Andhra Pradesh, Dante Wada & Bastar areas of Chhattisgarh State.
Divisions
With Bhubaneswar as its zonal headquarters, the East Coast Zone includes divisions of Sambalpur, Waltair and Khurda Road.
Development
With the expected surge in the industrial activities in the states coming under this zone, various developmental projects related to rail infrastructure are underway. The East Coast Zone was formed with an objective to provide reliable and cost effective railway services to the passengers through effective use of technology.
The East Coast Zone Railway tract covers 4,600km and it traverses around 42,500km route, which is managed and facilitated by more than 44,000 railway staffers. About 185 railway stations fall under this zone. Around 2,200km of the track has been electrified.
The railway lines which come under East Coast Zone include the following routes:
Duwada - Bhadrak Broad BG (Broad Gauge) double Line,- Kirandul Kothavalasa BG Single Line, Vizianagaram - Raipur Double Line BG, Cuttack - Angul Broad BG Line, Bobbili - Salur Single Line BG and many more.
With the increase in demand for transportation in the East Coast region, due to several mineral based industries such as chemicals and fertilizer plants and steel plants, the government is planning many ambitious projects. The railway capacity is being increased in the major ports like Paradeep, Gopalpur and Visakhapatnam along with an improvement in cargo handling facilities.
So, the East Coast railway is well on its path of progress, with huge capacity enhancement, track extension, electrification of existing lines and technological improvement too.
Last Updated on 12/18/2012
