South Coastal Railway (SCoR), Indian Railways’ newest railway zone will come into being, effective June 1, 2026. This was announced by the Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.
He stated that the gazette notification for the creation of South Coastal Railway Zone will be issued, with June 1, 2026 being notified as the effective date.
Creation of SCoR was first announced on February 27, 2019 by the then Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.
As per the detailed project report (DPR) on the creation of SCoR submitted to the Railway Board in 2019, the new zone will have three divisions- Vijayawada (BZA), Guntur (GNT) and Guntakal (GTL).
The Waltair (WAT) division of East Coast Railway (ECoR) will be split into two parts. The SCoR portion of WAT division will be merged with BZA division while the ECoR portion will go to Khurda Road division (KUR) and the newly created Rayagada (RGDA) division. SCoR will be under Commissioner of Railway Safety South Central Circle Secunderabad.
| Divisions under SCoR | Route km |
| BZA | 1414 |
| GTL | 1452 |
| GNT | 630 |
| Total | 3496 |
Bifurcation of Waltair division
Of the existing 1106 route kilometres in WAT division, 115 will go to KUR division of ECoR, 541 route km to RGDA division of ECoR and the remaining 450 route km merged with BZA divison of SCoR. This will be as follows:
1. Koraput (KRPU)-Singapur Road (SPRD) -164 km to RGDA division
2. Kottavalasa (KTV)-Araku (ARK incl) – 106 km under SCoR while ARK (excl)-Kirandul (KRDL) -360 km under ECoR RGDA division
3. Vizianagaram (VZM)- SPRD section – VZM-Kuneru incl (KNRT) 102 km and Bobbili(VBL)- Salur (SALR) 17-km branch line to SCoR. KNRT excl- SPRD -37 km to RGDA division
4. New line between Theruvali (THV) and Gunupur (GNPR) – 79 km long to be under RGDA. This line connects VZM- PSA main line to VZM-R line. The PSA -Naupada (NWP) 25 km main line and the NWP -GNPR 90 km branch line will be under ECoR.
5. SCoR’s BZA division will get Duvvada (DVD)-VSKP-VZP-NWP main line besides all branch lines in and around VSKP: Duvvada (DVD) – Jaggayyapalem (JGPM), DVD-Vadlapudi (VDPD), VSKP Steel Plant- VDPD- Simhachalam North (SCMN) and SCMN -DVD bypass line.
Interchange points between SCoR and ECoR
The new zonal inter-change points proposed in the DPR are as follows:
| Section | Interchange Point | Between divisions |
| VSKP-PSA mainline | Naupada under KUR division, ECoR | BZA-KUR |
| KTV-KRDL line | Araku under BZA division, SCoR | BZA and RGDA |
| R – VZM line | KNRT under BZA Divison, SCoR | BZA and RGDA |
After the creation of SCoR, South Central Railway (SCR) will be left with three divisons namely Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Nanded.
| SCoR at a glance | |
| Route kilometres | 3496 |
| Track kilometres | 5437 |
| Sanctioned staff strength | 65800 |
| Freight handling ports | Visakhapatnam, Gangavaram, Krishnapatnam and Kakinada |
| Major stations | VSKP, BZA, GTL, TPTY |
| Loco sheds | 3 electric(BZA, GTL WAT) and 4 diesel ( WAT, BZA, GY and GTL) |
| Workshops | Carriage workshop TPTY, Wagon workshop Rayanapadu ( RYP) and new wagon workshop at Vadlapudi near VSKP |
| Major freight examination yards | WAT, BZA, COA and GY |
| Coaching depots | WAT, VSKP, TPTY, NS, MTM, BZA and Kakinada (COA) |
| Track Machine Workshop | Central POH at RYP |
| MEMU workshop | Rajahmundry (RJY) |
