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South Central Railway
	6-South Central Railway
	SCR's largest station, the Secunderabad Railway Station
Overview
Headquarters	Rail Nilayam, Secunderabad
Locale	Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka
Dates of operation	1 October 1966; 58 years ago–
Predecessor	Southern Railway zone; Central Railway zone
Other
Website	https://scr.indianrailways.gov.in/

South Central Railway (abbreviated SCR) is one of the 19 zones of Indian Railways.^[1] The jurisdiction of the zone is spread over the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka.^[2] It has three divisions under its administration, which include Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada , Guntur, Guntakal and Nanded. Secunderabad, Telangana is the Zonal headquarter^[3]^[4]

History

Ex MP Bayya Suryanarayana Murthy requested in creation of a new railway zone while speaking about the size of the zones, he said the following: "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 of 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."^[5]

The zone was formed on 1 October 1966 by merging the carved-out divisions of Hubli, Vijayawada of Southern Railway zone and Solapur, Secunderabad of Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway.^[6] 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 2002, 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.^[2] 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.

Jurisdiction

The zone is spread over the states of Telangana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka Madya Pradesh.

Divisions

Infrastructure

Workshops

The zone has mechanical workshops at Mettuguda and Lallaguda.^[7]

Sheds

The zone has diesel loco sheds at Kazipet and Moula Ali . The zone has electric loco sheds at Lallaguda(Secunderabad) and Kazipet. The zone has one EMU Car shed at Moula Ali EMU.^[8]

Depots

The zone has Passenger coach care depots at Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Kacheguda, Vijayawada, Kakinada, Narasapur, Tirupati, Guntakal, Machillipatnam, Kazipet, Nanded and Purna. Additionally, Vijayawada, Gooty, 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, Vijayawada, Guntakal, Kazipet and Washim.

Healthcare

Railway Hospitals located in these areas Div.Hospitals at Secunderabad, Vijayawada, Guntakal and Kazipet, Guntur, Rayanapadu(Vijayawada) and Nanded have healthcare facilities serving exclusively for the employees of Indian railways and their families.^[9]

Loco sheds

Routes

Delhi-Chennai main line (a diagonal of the golden quadrilateral Grand trunk route) connecting north-south regions.
Balharshah Jn-kazipet Jn- kondapalli (End points excluded).
kazipetJn- Secunderabad Jn-wadi Jn(excl) connecting delhi-chennai line to mumbai-chennai main line
manmadJn- Hazur Sahib Nanded-SecunderabadJn- DhoneJn

Major Junctions

Projects

Electric loco shed, Guntakal^[10]
Midlife Coach factory, Kurnool^[11]
Periodic Wagon overhauling workshop, Kazipet^[12]
Bogie Components Manufacturing unit, Thottambedu^[13]

The Manoharabad-Kothapally railway line, which connects Karimnagar to Manoharabad is currently under construction and is expected to be completed in 2025.^[14]
Mahbubnagar-Munirabad new line, this line received funds in the 2023 Union Budget^[15]

Performance and earnings

For the financial year 2023–24, the zone had grossed a record revenue of ₹20,339 crore (US$2.4 billion), an increase on 7% from the previous fiscal. It recorded passenger footfall of 262.62 million and earned ₹5,731.8 crore (US$670 million). While, the freight earnings stood at ₹13,620 crore (US$1.6 billion) by transporting 141.12 million tonnes.^[16]^[17]

SCR FY Gross Revenue
FY	Gross Revenue
2023–24	₹20,339 crore (US$2.4 billion)^[16]
2022–23	₹18,973.14 crore (US$2.2 billion)^[18]
2021–22	₹14,266 crore (US$1.7 billion)^[18]

Achievements

South Central Railway topped among all railway zones of India in terms of train punctuality and passenger earnings in 2016–17.^[19]
The zone has become the first in the country to complete 100% LED lighting at all 733 stations under its jurisdiction.
In 2018, for the cleanliness category it was ranked second among all railway zones in India.^[20]