The Prime Minister,
Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee will be laying the foundation stone
for the new South Western Railway Zone Headquarters at Hubli
on February 14, 2003. The function to be presided over by the
Railway Minister, Shri Nitish Kumar and will be attended, among
others, by the Union Urban Development Minister, Shri Anantha
Kumar and the two Ministers of State for Railways, Shri Bandaru
Dattatraya and Shri A.K. Moorthy. The Chief Minister of Karnataka,
Shri S.M. Krishna will be the Chief Guest.
The South Western
Railway at Hubli will comprise three Divisions, such as, Hubli,
Mysore and Bangalore. The new Zone will become functional with
effect from April this year.
Of the seven new
zones carved out of the original nine zones on Indian Railways,
two zones, namely, East Central Railway at Hajipur and North
Western Railway at Jaipur have already become functional with
effect from October 1, 2002. The remaining five zones will become
fully operational from April this year.
The territorial
jurisdiction of all the seven new zones have since been finalized
and notified alongwith residual jurisdiction of existing zones.
The objective of
new zones is to improve efficiency of Railways. The reorganization
of Railways by creating new Zonal Railways is intended to provide
relief to the existing heavily worked Zonal Railways to improve
efficiency and to provide better service to the people. Smaller
Zones are going to be more efficient. The two new zones already
functioning at Hajipur and Jaipur have proved the point in terms
of improved efficiency of Railways in their jurisdiction. Looking
at the large size of operation of Railways with a heavy turn
over, a small increase in efficiency will give rich dividends.
It far outweighs the one time investment. In the current year’s
budget the outlay for new zones is Rs.29.77 crores.
The creation of
new zones on Indian Railways, now in its 150th year,
is a step in the direction to prepare the Railways to serve
the needs of the national economy adequately and efficiently.
