The railway lines of Waltair Railway Division.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday (February 7, 2025) gave its ex-post facto approval to the partial modification of the earlier decision of the Cabinet dating back to February 2019 to retain Waltair division in truncated form and rename it as Visakhapatnam division, in a bid to what Railways referred to as removing the ‘colonial legacy’.
Thus, one part of Waltair division, comprising approximately of the sections between stations Palasa-Visakhapatnam-Duvvada, Kuneru-Vizianagaram, Naupada Jn.- Paralakhemundi, Bobbili Jn.-Salur, Simhachalam North-Duvvada bypass, Vadalapudi-Duvvada and Vishakhapatnam Steel Plant-Jaggayapalem (around 410 km), will be retained as Waltair division under new South Coast Railway.
“It would be renamed as Vishakhapatnam division because Waltair name is a colonial legacy that needs to be changed,” a spokesperson of the Indian Railways said.
The other part of the Waltair division, comprising approximately of the sections between stations Kottavalasa-Bacheli, Kuneru-Theruvali Jn., Singapur Rd.-Koraput Jn. and Paralakhemundi-Gunpur (around 680 km), will be converted into a new division with head-quarter at Rayagada under East Coast Railway.
“Retention of Waltair division even in its truncated form, will meet the demand and aspirations of the people of the area,” the spokesperson added.
Published – February 07, 2025 10:17 pm IST
