Bhubaneswar: BJD MPs on Wednesday met Union railways minister Piyush Goyal and appraised him of the need to create a single rail zone for the entire state.

There should not be any bifurcation of railway in the state, but more divisions should be set up in the state for better delivery of services, the MPs jointly said.

A delegation, led by BJD parliamentary leader Bhart-ruhari Mahatab, on Wednesday called on Goyal in New Delhi and demanded creation of three new railway divisions in Rayagada, Rourkela and Jajpur Road. The demand came in the wake of chief minister Naveen Patnaik's demand to unify the state under one zone of East Coast Railway (EcoR).

In a letter to Goyal, Naveen had urged Goyal to set up three more railway divisions in Rourkela, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road and Rayagada to improve delivery of services in the state in terms of both meeting the requirements of the large and medium freight customers, the aspirations of amenities for the people and also in expediting the project work that has been delayed over the years.

The state government raised its pitch in its demand for more divisions after it had recently come to learn that the railways ministry was planning to set up a new zone, headquartered in Andhra Pra-desh, which had lost the zonal headquarters of South Central Railway in Secunderabad. Besides, the ministry is also planning to take the existing Waltair railway division (Visak-hapatnam) from the limits of the East Coast Railway to facilitate the formation of a new zone in Andhra Pradesh.

Many railway projects, such as the Khurda-Balangir, Haridaspur-Paradip and many other projects, have been hit allegedly because of lack of co-ordination among officials at various levels. Once more divisions come up, the works will be smoother.

The EcoR had come into existence in April 2003 and is one of the 17 railway zones of the Indian Railways. It was made functional with three divisions at Khurda Road, Sambalpur and Waltair. The MPs also urged the railway ministry to extend the ECoR limits to the Banspani-Padapahar, Rupsa-Bangiriposi and the Bhadrak-Laxmannath Road sections under the new Jajpur/Jajpur-Keonjhar Road division.