Tenders invited for upgradation of three railway stations in Coimbatore district

COIMBATORE: Southern Railway has invited tenders for upgradation of Irugur, Singanallur and Somanur railway stations. The upgrade includes raising the platforms and improving other infrastructure at a cost of around Rs 9 crore.

In May this year, Southern Railway released the itemized work list for the current financial year 2025 - 26. This list has almost covered the various long pending demands of the city.

In this regard, Southern Railway has allocated Rs 3.46 crore for the development of Singanallur railway station. This will include the construction of an optical fibre communication equipment room.

Similarly, the railways allocated Rs 6.42 crores to increase the platform height at Irugur and Somanur railway stations.

The tenders for all these stations have been invited under one package. They were uploaded on Tuesday.

However, recently the Singanallur station slipped down to Halt Grade-3 (HG 3) from HG 2. These grades are decided based on the station revenue.

While the upgrade works are round the corner, railway users demand resumption of the Coimbatore-Salem MEMU service. They also demand that Nos. 16322/16321Coimbatore–Nagercoil–Coimbatore Express train and No. 16844Palakkad Town–Trichy be given a stoppage at Singanallur station. These two trains had stoppages at Singanallur before the pandemic.

Commenting on the tenders, J Sathish, joint secretary of the Resident Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC), said, "It should not stop with just raising the platform level, but the railway should consider installation of a foot overbridge for the commuters to connect between two platforms. At Singanallur, the railways must consider developing a better approach road with entries towards SIHS Colony and the other one from Neelikonampalayam. The eastern part of the city is growing rapidly, and such infrastructure improvements are needed."