The South Central Railway (abbreviated SCR) is one of the 18 zones of Indian Railways. The jurisdiction of the zone is spread over the states of Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. It has three divisions under its administration, which include Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Nanded. It was re-organized in 2019 and the divisions of Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal railway station were separated to form South Coast Railway zone. Secunderabad railway station is the current headquarter and Gajanan Mallya is the present general manager of the zone.
History
Hon’ble Ex MP Bayya Suryanarayana Murthy requested in creation of New raiwlay 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, Vijayawada of Southern Railway zone and Solapur, Secunderabad of Nizam’s Guaranteed State Railway’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. Khandwa Akola 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, Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal divisions were merged into newly formed South Coast Railway zone.
Major railway stations include Gadwal, Mahbubnagar, Kurnool, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Kamareddy, Peddapalli, Jagityal, Kagaznagar, Khammam, Kazipet, Raichur, Dornakal, Bhadrachalam, Karimnagar, Ramagundam, Manchiryal, Kacheguda, Warangal, Vikarabad, Akola Junction, Nanded, Parbhani, Purna, Gajwel, Aurangabad and Nagarsol.
Jurisdiction
The zone is spread over the states of Telangana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
Divisions
- Secunderabad railway division
- Hyderabad railway division
- Nanded railway division
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 Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Kacheguda, Kazipet, Nanded and Purna. Additionally, Ramagundam, 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 Secunderabad, Kazipet and Washim.
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
- 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.
- Balharshah Jn(excl)-kazipet Jn- kondapalli(excl)
- kazipetJn- Secunderabad Jn-wadi Jn(excl) connecting delhi-chennai line to mumbai-chennai main line
- manmadJn- Nanded-SecunderabadJn- DhoneJn
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 122.5 million tonnes of freight and earned₹15,640 crore (US$2.2 billion); while it transported 383 million passengers and earned ₹10,000 crore (US$1.4 billion). 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.