Visakhapatnam: Three north Andhra (NA) politicians of different political parties in a united display of unconditional support to making Vizag as headquarters of the proposed new railway zone of Andhra Pradesh came together on Saturday. Vizag BJP MP K. Hari Babu, Anakapalle TD MP Muttamsetti Srinivas and Araku YSRC MP K. Geetha organised a public meeting of various union leaders and former employees of the East Coast Rail-way and general public at Visakha Public Library.
The meeting was organised to gather issues that ECoR has been facing directly from the people so that the three MPs along with Srikakulam MP, Rammohan Naidu, can list these in their meeting with ECoR general manager at Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC) meeting at Bubhaneshwar on September 2. Vizag MP Hari Babu, along with the other two MPs said that it is not necessary that headquarters of the proposed new railway zone should be in the capital city and that wherever the capital is the headquarters should be only in Vizag. ECoR Shramik Union general secretary C.S. Gandhi said at the meeting,
“Many new trains were introduced from Bubhaneshwar since the headquarters of ECoR was established there. Vizag will face many issues in future with increasing number of people travelling from and to Vizag, AP’s largest city if headquarters is not established here. It will just keep getting special trains on temporary basis but no regular trains.” The measures the three MPs decided to propose to ECoR, GM at the ZRUCC meeting include development of satellite stations in Pendurthi and Duvvada, doubledecker trains between Vizag and Vijayawada/Guntur, glass top tourist train to Araku, etc.
