Question : REORGANISATION OF ZONES AND DIVISIONS

(a) whether the Railways have taken any final decision on the recommendations made by the committee setup for reorganisation of zones and divisions in the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the time by which a final decision is likely to be taken in this regard;

(c) whether the said committee has considered the regional and geographical factors vis-à-vis administrative and operational factors for the purpose for ensuring equitable development/ expansion of railways across the country;

(d) if so, the details thereof; and

(e) if not, the steps taken/being taken by the Railways for giving weightage of regional/ geographical factors while deciding such reorganisation issues?

MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MALLIKARJUN KHARGE)

(a) to (e) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. 221 BY SHRI HARIBHAI CHAUDHARY AND SHRI YASHBANT N. S. LAGURI TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 06.02.2014 REGARDING REORGANISATION OF ZONES AND DIVISIONS

(a) No, Madam.

(b) It is difficult to set any time frame by which a final decision can be taken on the recommendations of this Committee.

(c) to (e): New Zones and Divisions on Indian Railways are set up keeping in view various factors like size, workload, accessibility, traffic pattern and other operational/administrative requirements, consistent with the needs of economy and efficiency. The Zones and Divisions on Indian Railways are neither based on the State/District boundaries nor are created generally on the basis of regional/geographical considerations.

The said Committee was constituted to analyse the large number of requests, which had been received from various State Governments, Union Ministers, Members of Parliament/MLAs, etc. for the creation of new Zones and Divisions on Indian Railways, from various angles of railway working like operational, financial, administrative and staff related issues etc. and examine the feasibility of creation of the proposed new Zones/Divisions. The Committee has submitted its report after examining the requests from these angles.