| Railroad Name: | South Coast Railway |
| Map Size: | 300px |
| Marks: | SCoR |
| Locale: | Andhra Pradesh,Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu |
| Start Year: | Yet to be operational |
| Website: | South Coast Railway Waltair South Coast Railway Vijayawada |
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 three divisions. The existing Waltair division will be bifurcated into three parts. The Andhra Pradesh part of the division, that includes Visakhapatnam district, Vizianagaram district, and a part of Srikakulam district (upto Naupada) will be merged into neighbouring Vijayawada division. The other part of Srikakulam district will be merged into Khurda Road division under East Coast Railway (ECoR).[2] South Coast Railway 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 - Araku (inclusive) controlled by Vijayawada division of SCoR.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.
The zone covers the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. It has four divisions:
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 [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.
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
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.