HISTORY OF WALTAIR DIVISION
Waltair Division owes its origin to the erstwhile state-owned East Coast Railway, which came into existence in the year 1893 with the construction of the Cuttack-Khurda Road-Puri line covering a distance of 96 Kms and its subsequent link up along the East Coast upto Vijayawada - junction point of Southern Maratha Railway and Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway . As a result, a total stretch of 1280 Kms. of East Coast Railway covering the entire coastal stretch of Cuttack - Khurda - Road - Puri - Palasa - Vizianagaram - Visakhapatnam - Kakinada - Rajahmundry-Vijayawada was opened for traffic between 1893 to 1896. Soon after, due to a change in the policy of the British Government, the Bengal Nagpur Railway , popularly known as the B.N.R , took over the northern section of East Coast Railway from Vizianagaram to Cuttack including the Branch Line of Puri by 23-01-1902.
No sooner was the development of Visakhapatnam as a major port sanctioned by the Secretary of State in 1924 , than, the Railway Board on behalf of the Government of India appointed the Agent of B.N.R. as the Administrative Officer for developing the Vizag Port. The same was completed and then opened to Ocean Traffic on 07-10-1933 . Thereafter, Waltair got its prominence as an important terminal junction point in handling the cargo in and out of Vizag Port on rail routes to the hinterland.
Waltair continued to be under the management control of B.N.R. till 14-04-1952 , and then it became part of the Eastern Railway at the time of the re-grouping of the Indian Railways. The merger of B.N.R. into Eastern Railway, however, did not last long and on 01-08-1955 South Eastern Railway emerged, constituting the old B.N.R. lines and thus maintaining the tradition and favourite identity of B.N.R.
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The other lines/branch lines falling under the present jurisdiction of Waltair Division came into existence in the following sequence
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Of the above, the construction of the K-K Line by Dandakaranya-Bolangir-Kiriburu (DBK) Railway Project needs a special mention in view of the fact that it had to meet real engineering challenges due to difficult terrain conditions in the Eastern Ghat Sections. With the movement of iron ore traffic from the Bailadilla Iron Ore range at Kirandul and Bacheli , this line became a real boon to the Waltair division of E.Co.Railway in terms of freight earnings. The construction of the K-R Line , however, was taken up in the late eighties to augment the line capacity and provide an alternative route for the increased iron ore movement to Vizag Port and Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.
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With effect from 1st April 2003 Waltair Division became a part of the newly formed East Coast Railway.
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HISTORY
