The much-speculated large-scale transfer of gazetted and non-gazetted officers from South Central Railway (SCR), headquartered in Secunderabad, to the newly formed South Coast Railway (SCoR) in Visakhapatnam appears to be largely unfounded with only a limited number of staff expected to be moved.A recent Railway Board circular clarified that the proposal to transfer 959 posts — nearly one-third of SCR’s Secunderabad headquarters staff — will not be carried out. The decision stems from the fact that 700 of these non-gazetted posts are already vacant, making large-scale dislocation unlikely.Although SCR will be divided in terms of infrastructure, assets and workload, the Railway Board has capped the total staff strength of SCoR at around 1,100. No new gazetted or non-gazetted posts will be created, apart from the appointment of a General Manager for the new zone.Of the 129 sanctioned gazetted officer posts for SCoR, about 82 are expected to be transferred from SCR, leaving out around 152 personnel out of its sanctioned strength of 234, as per the circular. EcoR, will be giving up 14% of present jurisdiction in terms of track and 25% of staff as about 46 gazetted officers will be shifted to SCoR. Essentially, the existing cadre in EcoR and SCR will be redistributed among the three zones, including SCoR.The Railway Board has endorsed the recommendations made in the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for SCoR, which advocate leveraging digital platforms like e-office to manage operations efficiently, rather than creating new posts.SCR has a sanctioned staff strength of 2,900, with 2,209 currently on the rolls. In comparison, ECoR, which will lose 13% of its jurisdiction to SCoR, has 2,272 employees against a sanctioned strength of 3,074. With the formation of SCoR, the non-gazetted posts will be reduced to 1,941 from 2,900 in SCR, and to 2,874 from 3,074 in ECoR.The staff options will be invited from across Indian Railways for the new zone, but priority for SCoR headquarters posts will be given first to existing staff in Visakhapatnam, followed by SCR staff, then ECoR staff, and finally, those from other railway zones.Secunderabad’s zonal training college will continue to cater to the needs of SCoR till an existing training centre is upgraded in Vijayawada. The Commissioner of Rail Safety in Secunderabad will continue to be in charge of SCoR too.Published - August 29, 2025 06:59 pm IST