Workers putting up the South Coast Railway signboard at the Subordinates’ Rest House in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: V. Raju
The administrative map of the railways in Visakhapatnam has changed, moving from the old Waltair Railway Division to the newly formed Visakhapatnam Railway Division.The restructuring, which took shape in 2025, sits within the larger reorganisation that created India’s 18th railway zone, the South Coast Railway (SCoR), headquartered at Visakhapatnam. The Ministry of Railways issued the gazette notification on May 4, 2026, and the zone will be fully operational on June 1, 2026. It meets a demand that Andhra Pradesh has pressed for more than four decades and a statutory commitment under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.Over a century of railway operationsThe railway network in this region dates to 1893, when broad-gauge operations began as part of the East Coast Railways. Through the 20th century, the network grew steadily, and reached early milestones such as the start of the Parlakhemundi Light Railways in 1901, and the inclusion of the Waltair Division in the Bengal Nagpur Railway by 1931.The division’s role as an industrial logistics hub grew further after the commissioning of the Kottavalasa-Kirandul (KK) line in 1968, which began carrying passenger trains by 1978.Modernisation milestonesThe division’s growth has been marked by steady technological and operational upgrades. Electric traction was introduced across the division in 1982. The Koraput-Rayagada (KR) line was commissioned in 1996.
