SCR Bifurcation To Rewrite Railway Map From June 1 After Six Decades

Hyderabad: From June 1, the South Central Railway (SCR) will be bifurcated following the creation of South Coast Railway (SCoR). SCR’s present network of 6,645 km across six divisions will be reduced to 3,606 km across three divisions — Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Nanded.

The Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal divisions will be transferred to SCoR. Several important trains, including the Gautami Express, Godavari Express, Shatavahana Express and Golconda Express, will now run across both SCR and SCoR jurisdictions. Revenue sharing and maintenance responsibilities for such trains are expected to be divided between the two zones.

SCR headquarters in Secunderabad, which currently has 2,900 non-gazetted staff and 234 gazetted officers, will be left with 1,941 non-gazetted staff and 152 gazetted officers from June 1.

Before bifurcation, SCR had six divisions: Secunderabad with 1,616 km of tracks; Vijayawada, 1,070 km; Guntakal, 1,460 km; Guntur, 722 km; Hyderabad, 782 km; and Nanded, 995 km. After bifurcation, the Secunderabad division will gain 219 km and its jurisdiction will increase to 1,835 km.

The Raichur-Wadi section from Guntakal division will be added to Secunderabad division. The Peddapalli-Nizamabad section will be shifted from Secunderabad division to Hyderabad division. The Latur Road-Parli Vaijnath section will be added to Nanded division from Secunderabad division, while the Mudkhed-Karkheli section will be shifted from Hyderabad division to Nanded division.

Headquartered in Secunderabad, SCR was formed on October 2, 1966, by carving out and merging divisions from Southern Railway and Central Railway. Sources said there are still several operational issues over the bifurcation and that complete clarity on sharing arrangements may take a few more months.