The South Coast Railway (SCoR) zone, India’s 18th railway zone, will be fully operational from Monday (June 1, 2026), marking a significant milestone in the region’s railway infrastructure. Headquartered in Visakhapatnam, the zone was constituted following a gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Railways on May 4, 2026.

The administrative set-up of the new zone is in place, and Sandeep Mathur is the general manager, railway sources told The Hindu on Sunday (May 31, 2026).

Mr. Mathur has been overseeing infrastructure projects, including capacity augmentation and track development, particularly the third- and fourth-line projects in the Visakhapatnam area.

The SCoR zone has four divisions: Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntakal and Guntur. It covers a rail network across Andhra Pradesh and parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Its principal officers include Vineet Kumar (principal chief operations manager), T. K. Sinha (principal chief electrical engineer), B. S. K. Raj Kumar (principal chief engineer), P. Hariprasad (principal financial advisor), L. V. S. S. Patrudu (principal chief personnel officer), D. Satyanarayana (chief commercial manager/co-ordination) and B. Chandra Sekhar (officer on special duty).

Operating temporarily from the VMRDA iconic building, ‘The Deck’, in Siripuram, the zone is designed to manage approximately 17,000 employees and handle substantial freight and passenger traffic. The permanent headquarters is currently under construction at Mudasarlova, for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone on January 8, 2025.