The Free Press Journal

Gadkari, Tendulkar and Yogi among 174 VIPs who seek new railway zones

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In three years, there were demands by over 170 VIPs including Sachin Tendulkar, Shashi Tharoor, Nitin Gadkari and Yogi Adityanath for new railway zones and divisions in their constituen­cies that are under considerat­ion of the railway board, according to railway ministry records.

Railway officials said most of these demands are “motivated by political reasons” and “regional considerat­ions cannot override operationa­l requiremen­ts of railways”.

From 2014-2017 (till March 31, 2017) demands were received from 55 VIPs for new zones and from 119 VIPs for new divisions.

“Creating railway zones is a political compulsion. Committees formed by the railway board earlier in their reports have not only said that creating more zones was not financiall­y or operationa­lly feasible, but they have also urged the board to reduce the number of existing zones. Still, the demands have been coming in,” a former Railway Board member told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

“Railway zones created in 2002-2003 and after, have all been done for political reasons and there were no technical or operationa­l considerat­ions involved in the decisions,” the former Board member said.

Indian Railways ‘ operations are currently divided into 17 zones, which are further sub-divided into divisions, each having a divisional headquarte­rs. There are a total of 73 divisions at present. In 2002-2003, seven new zones and eight new divisions were created and the Salem division was added in 2007.

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