Bhubaneswar: The jurisdiction of Bhubaneswar-headquartered East Coast Railway has shrunk with the railways ministry deciding to transfer the Ichchapuram–Palasa section of the Khurda Road division to the proposed Visakhapatnam division of the South Coast Railway, according to an official letter issued on Thursday.In a letter to general managers of the ECoR and SCoR, Rameshwar Meena, executive director of the Railway Board, said the jurisdiction of the proposed SCoR has been reviewed. “In partial modification, it has now been decided by the competent authority to also include Palasa-Ichhapuram section, including Ichchapuram station in the proposed Visakhapatnam division of the ECoR,” said the letter.Meena asked the general managers to advise the Railway Board about the proposed new boundary between Visakhapatnam division and Khurda Road division. Distance between Ichchapuram and Palasa is 50 km. There are five stations between these two stations. These are Jhadupudi, Sompeta, Baruva, Mandasa Road and Summadevi.Union civil aviation minister and Srikakulam MP K Ram Mohan Naidu shared the letter of the ministry of railways on his social media handle and expressed his happiness for addition of more railway stations in the Visakhapatnam division of the SCoR.“This has been a long-pending aspiration of our people, and I have been consistently pursuing it since the zone’s announcement in 2019. I sincerely thank PM Narendra Modi and railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on behalf of people of Srikakulam for this thoughtful decision,” said Naidu.He said the stations, including Palasa, Baruva, Jhadupudi, Summadevi, Sompeta, Mandasa Road and Ichchapuram will now come under this zone, ensuring better administrative efficiency and improved services for the people of Srikakulam.
