No decision has yet been taken on the issue of the establishment of a separate railway zone with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters, according to Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani.

It is a long-pending demand of the people of the area, and all political parties had made the promise during the bifurcation of the State in 2014.

“The status quo continues,” Lohani said during an interaction with reporters here on Wednesday. A team of senior officials had come to inspect the landslide-hit bridge near Borra Caves, which the Railways repaired in a span of 58 days.

Administrative decision

Lohani complimented the Railway officials for “the brilliant job in repairing the tracks in a short span, and restoring the traffic on the Kothavalasa-Kirandul line.”

He later inspected the amenities at the railway station here and expressed satisfaction over its cleanliness.

He said it is up to the Ministry to take a decision on creating a zone as it was an administrative matter. Umesh Singh, General Manager, East Coast Railway, who was also present, said carving out a new zone is a “political decision”.

Lohani said he was not aware of any objections reportedly raised by BJP leaders of Odisha to the formation of a new zone, as reported in a section of the press.

He said the Railways had already sanctioned a new express train from Visakhapatnam to Varanasi and indicated that it might consider plying direct overnight trains from Visakhapatnam to Vijayawada, Chennai and Bengaluru.

On the possibility of introducing a bullet train between Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada, he said now the focus is on completing India’s first bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in the next five years.

Earlier, Divisional Railway Manager Mukul Saran Mathur briefed Lohani on the progress of various projects.

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