Kerala   

Rail zone for State not feasible: Velu

Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu.

New Delhi: The Kerala Government’s demand for setting up a new railway zone in the State is unlikely to see the light of the day with the Centre on Friday making it clear that a proposal in this regard has not been found feasible.

The Railway Ministry is not considering the proposal, Minister of State for Railways R. Velu said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha to a query on Kerala’s demand for setting up a Peninsular Railway Zone in the southern State.

“New zones are set up keeping in view factors like size, workload, accessibility, traffic pattern and other operating/ administrative requirements consistent with the needs of economy without any regional considerations. The proposal when seen in the light of the above criteria has not been found feasible,” he said.

Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan had last week met Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and pressed for the formation of a rail zone. Members of Parliament from the State had also been making similar demands.

The Kerala Government is already aggrieved over the Railway Ministry’s plan to bifurcate the Palakkad rail division for creating a new division with Salem in Tamil Nadu as its headquarters. With the creation of the Salem division seems certain, a new zone for Kerala was seen as a compromise formula.

As per norms, zones are not created in accordance with the geography of States, but on the basis of the volume of goods and passenger traffic and the length of the route.

Every State Government is pressing the Centre to divide zones as per its convenience. It costs the Railway Board about Rs.5 crore to carve out a new zone while the majority of the staff is drawn from the existing employees of the zone that is bifurcated. — PTI

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