The Railways have decided to operationalise seven new zones and eight new divisions, Nitish Kumar announced while presenting the Rail Budget in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The North Western Railway and East Central Railway headquartered at Jaipur and Hajipur have become operational, he said, adding the remaining five new zones will be operational from April 1, 2003.

The five new zones are East Coast Railway at Bhubaneswer, North Central Railway at Allahabad, South East Central Railway at Bilaspur, West Central Railway at Jabalpur and South Western Railway at Hubli.

The Eight new divisions headquartered at Agra, Ahmedabad, Guntur, Nanded, Pune, Ranchi, Rangiya and Raipur will also be operational from April one this year, he said.

<P>PTI