Redevelopment of Katpadi railway station progressing

CHENNAI: Redevelopment of Katpadi Railway station, which is one of the major stations taken up for redevelopment by Indian Railway, is progressing well.

Southern Railway (SR) has achieved significant breakthrough in execution of the Rs 329 crore works awarded with a 36-month deadline.

Literature made available by the zonal headquarters showed that topographical, traffic and GPS surveys, mandatory clearances, master plan validation, collection of samples for material testing, and inventory for trees and buildings have been completed for the station redevelopment project.

The SR has proposed to demolish the existing station building and shift the existing facilities to a new building with a separate arrival and departure terminal to segregate inward and outward passengers.

The departure terminal building on the southern side would comprise of ground plus four and a mezzanine structure with a built up area of 10,250 sq meters.

The ground floor would consist of a departure lobby, help desk, AC waiting hall, booking and ticketing offices with sufficient escalators, lifts to access the top floor, while the mezzanine floor would have retiring rooms. First floor would have AC and non AC waiting halls, cloak room and railway offices.

The second floor of the departure terminal building is proposed to be equipped with ladies reserved waiting Area, non-AC waiting area, baby care, and commercial area and third and fourth floors would be dedicated for commercial development.

For the better connectivity of both the arrival -amp; departure terminal buildings, two Subways have been planned on either side of the terminals.

The SR has also proposed to construct a multi-level car parking which would be a ground plus six floors having a total built-up area of 9,250 sqm with the capacity to accommodate 258 cars and 2,120 two-wheelers.