The South Central Railway (abbreviated SCR) is one of the 19 zones of

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...

. The jurisdiction of the zone is spread over the states of

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 35 ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdi ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. It has three divisions under its administration, which include

Secunderabad Secunderabad, also spelled as Sikandarabad (, ), is a twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the Indian state of Telangana. It is the headquarters of the South Central Railway ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...

and

Nanded Nanded is a city in Maharashtra state, India. It is the tenth largest city in the state and the seventy-ninth most populous city in India. It is the second largest city in Marathwada region. It is the district headquarters of Nanded distri ...

. It was re-organized in 2019 and the divisions of

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises N ...

Guntur Guntur () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Guntur district in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Guntur is spread across 168.49 km square and is the third-largest city in the state. ...

and Guntakal railway divisions were separated to form

South Coast Railway zone South Coast Railway Zone (SCoR) has been announced as the newest railway zone of the Indian Railways and is headquartered at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The formal notification for operationalization of this Zone is yet to be issued. Jur ...

. Secunderabad railway station is the current headquarter and ''Arun Kumar Jain'' is the present general manager of the zone.

History

Hon'ble Ex MP Bayya Suryanarayana Murthy requested in creation of New railway zone at While speaking about the size of the zones, I am tempted to speak about the Southern zone. This zone, as I said, consists of 6.017 miles. It spreads itself like a leviathan into five States— Bombay, Mysore, Andhra Pradesh, Madras and Kerala. It is not only over-sized but it is unwieldy. The Railway Board has to consider whether it could not be bifurcated. In this connection, the creation of a new zone known as the South Central Zone may be thought of. It may consist of the following divisions: Bez- wada division, Guntakal. Hubli, Wal- tair, Secunderabad and Sholapur division. I think the creation of that new zone will relieve the General Manager of the existing zone of some at his duties and will give him ' breathing space to concentrate his attention upon other divisions I do not think there will be any extra expenditure if we create a new zone. Secunderabad, which will be part of the new zone, was the headquarters of the Nizam’s railways. As such, the buildings and other paraphernalia necessary for the headquarters of a zone are already there The zone was formed on 2 October 1966 by merging the carved out divisions of

Hubli Hubli, officially known as Hubballi, is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. The twin cities Hubli–Dharwad form the second largest city in the state by area and population and the largest city in North Karnataka. Hubli is in Dharwad dist ...

of Southern Railway zone and

Solapur Solapur () is a city located in the south-western region of the Indian state of Maharashtra, close to its border with Karnataka. Solapur is located on major highway, rail routes between Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad, with a branch ...

of ''

Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway (NGSR) was a railway company operating in India from 1879 to 1950. It was owned by the Nizams of Hyderabad State, and its full name was ''His Exalted Highness, The Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway''. The company ...

's''. On 2 October 1977, Guntakal division of Southern Railway zone was merged and the already merged division of Solapur was demerged from the zone and became part of its former Central Railway zone. On 17 February 1978, Hyderabad division was formed by splitting the existing Secunderabad railway division. On 1 April 2003, two new divisions of Guntur and Nanded were created in this zone and the Hubli division was demerged and became part of

South Western Railway zone The South Western Railway (SWR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India, headquartered at Hubballi in Karnataka State. SWR was created from carving out the routes from Southern Railways, South Central Railways and Central Railways in 2003. ...

Khandwa Khandwa is a city and a nagar nigam in the Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Khandwa district, formerly known as East Nimar District. Khandwa is a major railway junction; the Malwa line conn ...

Akola Akola () is a municipal corporation and the third largest city in Vidarbha after Nagpur and Amravati and tenth largest city in Maharashtra. is located about east of the state capital, Mumbai, and west of the second capital, Nagpur. A ...

section was merged into Bhusaval Division of Central Railways as the line was taken up for Gauge Conversion in 2017. On 27 February 2019, AP part of Waltair Division,

and Guntakal divisions were merged into newly formed

Jurisdiction

The zone is spread over the states of

Divisions

Secunderabad railway division Secunderabad railway division is one of the six divisions of South Central Railway zone (SCR) of the Indian Railways. It is one of the top five divisions of Indian Railways and its divisional and zonal headquarters are at Secunderabad. Histor ...

Hyderabad railway division Hyderabad railway division is one of the three divisions of South Central Railway zone of the Indian Railways. The headquarters of the Division is at Secunderabad and its zonal headquarters is at Secunderabad. Even though Hyderabad has its own ...

Nanded railway division Nanded railway division is one of the three railway divisions under South Central Railway zone of Indian Railways. This railway division was formed on 1 April 2003 and its headquarter is located at Nanded in the state of Maharashtra in India. Secu ...

Infrastructure

Workshops

The zone has mechanical workshops at Mettuguda and Lallaguda.

Sheds

The zone has diesel loco sheds at Kazipet and Moula-Ali(Secunderabad) . The zone has electric loco sheds at Lallaguda(Secunderabad) and Kazipet. The zone has one EMU Car shed at Moula-Ali EMU.

Depots

The zone has Passenger coach care depots at

Kacheguda Kachiguda is one of the old suburbs in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The third largest railway station in Hyderabad, Kacheguda railway station, built during the Nizam rule, is a major landmark of Kachiguda. History The name was derived from t ...

, Kazipet,

and

Purna : Purna is a town with a municipal council in Parbhani district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Geography Purna is located at . It has an average elevation of . Purna is situated in the Maharashtra state of India. Demographics India cen ...

. Additionally,

Ramagundam Ramagundam is a city and municipal corporation in Peddapalli district of the Indian state of Telangana. It is the most populous city in the district and falls under the Peddapalli revenue division. It is located on the banks of the Godava ...

, Bellampally have wagon maintenance depots.

Training Institutes

The zone has training institutes for imparting and learning railway techniques serving both Indian as well foreign railway staffs at

, Kazipet and

Washim Washim (Vatsagulma) is a city and a Municipal Council in Washim district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Washim is the district headquarters of Washim district. Etymology Washim was known earlier as Vatsagulma and it was the seat of po ...

Healthcare

Railway Hospitals located in these areas Lallaguda (Secunderabad), Kazipet and Nanded have healthcare facilities serving exclusively for the employees of Indian railways and their families.

Loco sheds

* Electric Loco Shed, Lallaguda * Electric Loco Shed, Kazipet *

Electric Loco Shed, Vijayawada Electric Loco Shed, Vijayawada is a motive power depot performing locomotive maintenance and repair facility for electric locomotives of the Indian Railways, located at Vijayawada of the South Central Railway zone in Andhra Pradesh, India. ...

Diesel Loco Shed, Gooty Diesel Loco Shed, Gooty is an engine shed located in Gooty, Andhra Pradesh in India. It falls under the jurisdiction of Guntakal railway division of South Coast Railway zone. History It is one of the oldest loco sheds, started by the british ...

* Diesel Loco Shed, Guntakal * Diesel Loco Shed, Moula Ali * Diesel Loco Shed, Kazipet

Routes

* Delhi-Chennai main line(diagonal of golden quadrilateral Grand trunk route)connecting north-south regions. * Jn(excl)- Jn- (excl) *Jn- Jn- Jn(excl) connecting delhi-chennai line to mumbai-chennai main line *Jn- -Jn- Jn *

Projects

* Electric loco shed, Guntakal * Midlife Coach factory, Kurnool * Periodic Wagon overhauling workshop, Kazipet * Bogie Components Manufacturing unit, Thottambedu

Performance and earnings

For the financial year 2018–19, the zone had transported of freight and earned; while it transported passengers and earned . It runs a total of 744 trains per day, with a passenger footfall of five hundred thousand.

Achievements

South Central Railway topped among all railway zones of India in terms of train Punctuality and passenger earnings in 2016–17. The South Central Railway (SCR) has become the first railway zone in the country to complete 100 per cent LED lighting at all 733 stations under its jurisdiction. In 2018, it was ranked second in cleanliness of all railway zones in India.

References

External links

* {{Hyderabad topics Zones of Indian Railways Rail transport in Telangana Railway companies established in 1966 1966 establishments in India