East Coast Railway zone

For the British railway operator, see East Coast (train operating company).
East Coast Railway
पूर्वी तट रेलवे
ପୂର୍ବ ତଟ ରେଳପଥ
తూర్పు కోస్తా రైల్వే

East Coast Railway-15
Locale Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh
Dates of operation 1 April 2003–
Headquarters Bhubaneswar railway station
Website ECoR official website
East Coast Railway Headquarters at Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar railway station is one of the biggest railway station of East Coast Railway Zone
Visakhapatnam Junction is one of the busiest railway station of East Coast Railway Zone

The East Coast Railway (ECoR) is one of the sixteen railway zones of Indian Railways. It came into existence on 1 April 2003. As the name suggests, most of the railway routes of the zone are near the east coast of India.

History

Consequent upon the parliament’s approval, East Coast Railway was the first of the seven new zones to be inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India H. D. Deve Gowda on 8 August 1996. The Officer-on-Special Duty took over charge of the newly declared Zone on 16 September 1996. Initially, only one division namely Khurda Road was attached to this railway. Subsequently the zone became fully operational with effect from 1 April 2003 with three divisions — Khurda Road, Visakhapatnam, and Sambalpur. The headquarters building of the zone at Bhubaneswar was constructed by CMM Infraprojects Ltd of Indore in 2009.

Divisions

The geographical jurisdiction of East Coast Railway zone extends over three states encompassing almost all of Odisha along with parts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts of northeastern Andhra Pradesh and Bastar and Dantewada districts of Chhattisgarh state. The zonal headquarters is at Bhubaneswar in Odisha.

The zone has three divisions: Sambalpur, Khurda Road and Waltair.

Electrification

The East Coast Railway line integrated with the commissioned Howrah-Chennai electrified trunk route on 29 November 2005. There was a missing link between Kharagpur and Visakhapatnam stations and all trains from Howrah towards Chennai side had to undergo a locomotive change from electric to diesel at Kharagpur and vice versa at Visakhapatnam in order to pass through Odisha. Even trains from New Delhi such as the Bhubaneswar Rajdhani had to undergo the change at Kharagpur. This frequent loco change on a trunk route became a time consuming & inconvenient process. With electrification along the 765 km Kharagpur-Visakhapatnam stretch, trains got speeded up and the need for double headed diesels for high speed express trains was eliminated thus saving on diesel consumption and a cleaner travel. Additionally the line branching off Khurda road towards Puri was also electrified. Gradually the Cuttack-Angul line, Cuttack-Paradeep line and branch line from Jakhapura towards Barbil got electrified too.

Major Railway Stations

The major railway stations in the entire zone are Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Khurda Road, Bhadrak, Jajpur Keonjhar Road, Brahmapur, Angul, Sambalpur, Balangir, Titlagarh, Rayagada, Palasa, Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram. Most of the major stations fall in the state of Odisha.

Trains

From Bhubaneswar

From Puri

From Visakhapatnam

From Sambalpur

Loco Sheds and Units

Routes

East Coast Railway zone has about 273 railway stations.

Division Track kilometre Route kilometre Electrified Track kilometre Electrified Route kilometre;
Khurda Road1,9768341,965834
Sambalpur1,116740
Waltair2,1221,1031,406709
Total5,2142,6773,3711,543

Railway lines

ECoR has only 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) broad gauge railway tracks.

  1. Bhadrak-Bhubaneswar-Khurda Road-Visakhapatnam-Duvvada Double line [87 railway stations]
  2. Talcher-Cuttack Junction Double line [19 railway stations]
  3. Vizianagaram-khariar road Double line [35 railway stations]
  4. Cuttack-Paradip Double line [10 railway stations]
  5. Khurda Road-Puri Double line [09 railway stations]
  6. Sambalpur-Talcher Single line [13 railway stations]
  7. Titlagarh-Jharsuguda Single line [22 railway stations]
  8. Kothavalasa–Kirandul single line [45 railway stations]
  9. Rayagada-Koraput Single line [14 railway stations]
  10. Naupada-Gunupur Single line [15 railway stations]
  11. Bobbili-Salur Single line [04 railway station]

External links

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