East Coast Railway zone
 |
 East Coast Railway written in Devanagari | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Bhubaneswar |
| Locale | Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh |
| Dates of operation | April 1, 2003– |
| Other | |
| Website | ECoR official website |
The East Coast Railway (ECoR) is one of the seventeen 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.
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, Bargarh Road, Kantabanji, Rayagada, Palasa, Visakhapatnam, srikakulam road\amudavalasa and Vizianagaram.
Most of the major stations fall in the state of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh .
Rail infrastructure
- Electric Loco Shed- Angul
- Diesel Loco Shed- Visakhapatnam
- Electric Loco Shed- Visakhapatnam
- Carriage Repair Workshop- Mancheswar, Bhubaneswar
Routes
East Coast Railway zone has about 273 railway stations with a track length of 5214 km spread as follows:-
| Division | Total kilometre | Electrified kilometre | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Track | Route | Track | Route | |
| Khurda Road | 1,976 | 834 | 1,965 | 834 |
| Sambalpur | 1,116 | 740 | - | - |
| Waltair | 2,122 | 1,103 | 1,406 | 709 |
| Total | 5,214 | 2,677 | 3,371 | 1,543 |
Railway lines
ECoR is an uni-gauge zone having only (1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)) broad gauge railway tracks.The sections are:-
- Bhadrak-Bhubaneswar-Khurda Road-Visakhapatnam-Duvvada Double Electrified BG line [92 Railway stations]
- Talcher-Cuttack Junction Double Electrified BG line [21 Railway stations]
- Vizianagaram Junction-Titlagarh Junction Double Diesel BG line [28 Railway stations](Construction – Electrification of Double BG line)
- Titlagarh Junction-Mahasamund Single Diesel BG line [15 Railway stations]
- Cuttack Junction-Paradip Double Electrified BG line [10 Railway stations]
- Khurda Road Junction-Puri Double Electrified BG line [11 Railway stations]
- Sambalpur Junction-Talcher Single Diesel BG line [16 Railway stations] (Doubling of this line is currently underway)
- Titlagarh Junction-Sambalpur Junction Single Diesel BG line [16 Railway stations] (Doubling of this line is currently underway)
- Sambalpur Junction-Jharsuguda Junction Double Diesel BG line [10 Railway stations] (Electrification of the line is currently underway)
- Kothavalasa Junction – Kirandul Single Electified BG line [47 Railway stations]
- Rayagada-Koraput Junction Single Diesel BG line [15 Railway stations]
- Naupada Junction-Gunupur Single Diesel BG line [14 Railway stations]
- Bobbili-Salur Single Diesel BG line [04 Railway stations]
