Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, along with Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, visited the temporary office of the newly formed South Coast Railway (SCoR) zone at the VMRDA building in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. During the visit, the Chief Minister requested the Central Government to take immediate steps to commence the full-fledged operations of the SCoR zone from June 1st of this year and urged them to issue an official gazette notification regarding the same.
Following the visit, the Chief Minister and the Union Minister conducted a high-level review meeting with top officials from the South Central, East, and South Coast Railway zones, as well as local public representatives. During this session, the railway authorities gave a detailed presentation on the upcoming operations of the new railway zone and the current progress of various ongoing railway projects across the state of Andhra Pradesh.
In the meeting, CM Chandrababu Naidu made several key suggestions, including proposing certain administrative modifications and the merging of specific railway sections into the new zone. He specifically requested the inclusion of the Araku-Kothavalasa and Kurnool-Dhone sections into the SCoR to boost regional development. Pointing out that the state’s low rail route density is an obstacle to transforming AP into a major logistics hub, he strongly emphasized the need to connect the hinterlands of neighboring states to Andhra Pradesh’s ports through enhanced railway networks.
