South Coast Railway zone

South Coast Railway Zone (SCoR) has been announced as the newest railway zone of the Indian Railways and is headquartered at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.^[1] The formal notification for operationalization of this Zone is yet to be issued.

South Coast Railway will be headquartered at Visakhapatnam and have four divisions,^[2]namely Waltair, Vijayawada, Guntur, Guntakal and spreads over the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana (except Kurnool of Hyderabad division and Jaggaiahpet of Secunderabad division).It also covers a minor portion of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The 1,106 route km of the present Waltair division is proposed to be distributed between East Coast Railway – Rayagada division (541 km), Khurda division (115 km) and Vijayawada division (450 km). With the proposed jurisdictions, SCoR will have division-wise route km and Running track km as: Vijayawada 1,414 and 2,631 respectively, Guntakal 1,452 and 2,145 and Guntur 630 and 661 respectively.

• Kottavalasa - Kirandul line: Kottavalasa - Araku (inclusive) controlled by Waltair division

This is an important mineral route with ruling gradient of 1 in 60 with some block sections prone for stalling of loaded freight trains. Hence it is preferable to fix inter zonal boundary in such a way that either sides of interchange point at a station which has operational feasibility and flexibility in the form of more running lines to regulate trains and also availability of field officers and supervisors for troubleshooting. Keeping these factors in view these boundaries were fixed from 106 km from Kottavalasa to including Araku station.

• Vizianagaram - Raipur line: Vizianagaram - Kuneru(inclusive) Controlled by Waltair division of SCoR.
• Vizianagaram - Howrah main line: Vizianagaram - Naupada Junction (Excluding) Controlled by Waltair division of SCoR.

The zone covers the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. It has four divisions:

• Waltair railway division
• Vijayawada
• Guntur
• Guntakal

The zone operates more than 500 trains during peak season to clear the rush of passengers.^[3] For the financial year 2020–2021, the zone is expected to collect ₹13,000 crore (equivalent to ₹150 billion or US$1.8 billion in 2023)^[4] per annum as per the DPR of SCoR.

Many railway stations in South Coast Railway Zone are Wi-Fi enabled, provided by Railwire in association with Google which are as follows.

• URBAN: Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada Junction, Guntur Junction,Gudivada Junction,

Tirupati, Rajahmundry, Kakinada Town, Nellore, Srikakulam Road, Bhimavaram Town, Samalkot Junction, Eluru, Kadapa, Proddatur, Renigunta Junction, Anantapur, Ongole, Guntakal Junction, Gudur Junction, Tadepalligudem, Tenali Junction, Tuni, Vizianagaram, Chirala, Yadgir,Machilipatnam,Pakala Junction,Chittoor and Raichur

• SUB URBAN: Powerpet-Eluru, New Guntur- Guntur, Duvvada-Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli-Visakhapatnam, Simhachalam-Visakhapatnam, Simhachalam North-Visakhapatnam, Marripalem-Visakhapatnam, Pendurthi-Visakhapatnam, Kotthavalasa-Visakhapatnam, Gunadala-Vijayawada, Kovvur-Rajahmundry, Rayanapadu-Vijayawada, Kakinada Port-Kakinada and Godavari-Rajahmundry
• RURAL:^[5] Gollapalli, Badampudi, Bhiknur, Bhimadolu, Chagallu, Chebrol, Denduluru, Duggirala, Gannavaram, Krishna Canal Junction, Mangalagiri, Mustabada, Navabpalem, Nambur, Nidadavolu Junction, Nuzvid, Pedda Avutapalle, Pedavadlapudi, Pulla, Sangamjagarlamudi, Telaprolu, Gundla, Vatlur, Talmadla, Upplavai

The zone has passenger coach care depots at Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Narsapur, Machilipatnam, Vijayawada in VIJAYAWADA Division. Nallapadu, Guntur in GUNTUR Division. Tirupati and Guntakal in GUNTAKAL Division. Additionally Vijayawada and Gooty have wagon maintenance depots.^[6]

The zone has training institutes for imparting and learning railway techniques serving both Indian as well as foreign railway staffs at Vijayawada and Guntakal.

Railway Hospitals which are located in these areas, Div. Hospital at Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntakal and Rayanapadu, Guntur have healthcare facilities serving exclusively for the employees of Indian railways and their families.^[7]

This zone has Electric loco sheds at Electric Loco Shed, Vijayawada, Electric Loco Shed, Visakhapatnam and diesel loco sheds at Diesel Loco Shed, Guntakal, Diesel Loco Shed, Gooty, Diesel Loco Shed, Visakhapatnam,Diesel Loco Shed, Vijayawada . This zone also has 2 Electric Loco trip sheds at Guntakal and Renigunta and plans to convert the trip shed in Guntakal to an electric loco shed.