Lalu's Kerala gift ups railway zones to 17

With Railway Minister Lalu Prasad promising a new railway zone for Kerala, the number of such zones is set to rise to 17. There were only nine zones till 1997.

Prasad's proposal is clearly aimed at appeasing the Left Front, which is in power in Kerala, and goes on to prove again that the creation of zones has often been a result of political and regional aspirations.

Under the norms, zones are not created according to the geography of states but on the basis of the volume of the goods and passenger traffic and the length of the route.

A railway ministry source said the new zone, created by bifurcating the Southern Railway, would have three divisions: Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram and Salem (which has created a controversy, though at present, Salem comes under the Palakkad division).

The new zone, with headquarters in Kerala's capital, would be called West Coast Railways, the source said. The addition of the profitable Palakkad division would bolster the finances of the proposed zone, he added. A railway ministry official said the new zones pruned the large administrative areas covering several states.

He said creation of a new zone cost the Railway Board just Rs 4-5 crore as the manpower requirement was fulfilled largely through the existing employees of the zone that was bifurcated.

"Normally vacancies are filled through our own employees volunteering to work in the new zone. In case of a shortfall, we go for recruitment drives," said a senior board official.

However, it is acknowledged in railway circles that new zones have often been created due to pressures from state governments. The above example only bolsters this argument.

"Every state government forces the Centre to divide zones according to its convenience," a former railway ministry official said.