NEW RAILWAY ZONES TO BE FUNCTIONAL FROM APRIL 1
Five new Railway
Zones at Allahabad, Bhubaneswar, Bilaspur, Hubli and Jabalpur
and eight newly created Divisions at Nanded, Agra, Guntur, Raipur,
Ranchi, Pune, Rangiya and Ahmedabad will become fully functional
from April 1, 2003.
With this, the
number of Railway Zones will go upto sixteen and Divisions to
67 all over the country.
The North Central
Railway (NCR), Allahabad will comprise re-organised Allahabad
Division of Northern Railway, reorganized Jhansi Division of Central
Railway and newly constituted Agra Division. East Coast Railway
(ECR), Bhubneswar will comprise Khurda Road, Waltair (Vishakhapatnam)
and Sambalpur Divisions of South Eastern Railway. South Western
Railway (SWR), Hubli will consist of Bangalore and Mysore Divisions
of Southern Railway and re-organized Hubli Division of South Central
Railway. West Central Railway (WCR), Jabalpur will have Jabalpur
and Bhopal Divisions of Central Railway and reorganized Kota Division
of Western Railway South East Central Railway (SECR), Bilaspur
will comprise Nagpur and reorganized Bilaspur Divisions of South
Eastern Railway and newly constituted Raipur Division.
The Prime Minister
Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee will dedicate South East Central Railway
at Bilaspur to the nation formally on April 5, 2003 although the
new zone will start functioning on April 1, 2003. The Railway
Minister Shri Nitish Kumar will inaugurate North Central Railway
at Allahabad, West Central Railway at Jabalpur and East Coast
Railway at Bhubanessar on April 1, 2003. The Minister of State
for Railways Shri Bandaru Dattatraya will inaugurate South Western
Railway at Hubli. The two other Zones at Hajipur and Jaipur became
fully functional from October 1, 2003.
As for newly
constituted Divisions, the Railway Minister Shri Nitish Kumar
will inaugurate Rangiya Division on Northeast Frontier Railway
in Assam on April 2, 2003, Pune Division on April 3, 2003 and
Agra Division on April 4, 2003.
The Deputy Prime
Minister Shri Lal Krishna Advani will inaugurate Ahmedabad Division
on April 6, 2003.
With the re-organization
of Railway Zones and Divisions into a cohesive and manageable
administrative units, the productivity and efficiency of Indian
Railways are designed to look up in the days to come to maintain
primacy of bulk transportation of people and goods in the country
and to meet the challenges of globalization, qualitative and competitive
rail services to the nation.
The Supreme Court
of India in its landmark judgement on March 13, 2003, upheld legal
and constitutional validity of the newly created Railway Zones.
