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The new zones are East Coast Railway to be headquartered in Bhubaneswar, North Central in Allahabad, South Western in Hubli, South East Central Railways in Bilaspur and one more in Jabalpur.
A railway ministry spokesman on Saturday said a notification for the constitution of the new zones has been issued.
Already there is a raging controversy over the ministry's decision to bifurcate the Eastern Railway by creating the East Central railway zone with Hajipur in Bihar as its headquarters.
The East Coast and South East Central Railways will be carved out of the South Eastern railway zone, which is headquartered in Kolkata.
Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee sparked off a political storm over the division of Eastern Railway, saying it would result in revenue-earning part of the railways going to Bihar at the cost of West Bengal.
She has refused to join the National Democratic Alliance government insisting that her demand for maintaining status quo on the Eastern Railway zone division be maintained.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya met Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani in New Delhi on Saturday to discuss the issue.
With the creation of five new zones and two in June, the total number of railway zones is now 16.
The spokesman said in addition to the new zones, eight more railway divisions have been created at Rangiya (Assam), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Pune and Nande (Maharashtra), Agra (Uttar Pradesh) and Guntur (Andhra Pradesh). The country already has 58 railway divisions.
PTI
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