Railway stations in state to get Amrit makeover

Hyderabad: The South Central Railway has said 114 station in its jurisdiction will be redeveloped under the Central government’s Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. Some 40 stations in Telangana will be developed at a cost of 1,805 crore, of which 21 will see the foundation stone being laid in phase 1. Under the scheme, the biggest project of them all within the state will be the redevelopment of Hyderabad railway station at a cost of 309 crore, according to Arun Kumar Jain, general manager, SCR. Addressing a press conference, Jain said that other redevelopments will include Nizamabad station for 53 crore, Kamareddy for 39.9 crore, Mahbubnagar for 39.8 crore and Mahabubabad for 39.7 crore. Within Hyderabad city, major MMTS stations such as Hitech City, Hafeezpet, Begumpet, Malakpet, Malkajgiri and Uppuguda will witness a massive transformation in terms of architecture, facilities and increasing passenger capacity. Giving a presentation about the scheme, Jain said all the ABSS development activity will include improvements to the station building façade, waiting halls, circulating area, lifts, escalators, provision of additional cover over platform, and foot-over-bridges among others. Jain also explained that they had already discussed with Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) officials and that MMTS stations such as Begumpet and Malakpet, which are close to Metro stations will have an integrated transfer point between the two. “At Hyderabad station, the project is envisaged keeping the growing passenger rush in mind. We are also coordinating with the state officials to have the approach roads widened wherever necessary,” Jain said. The waiting area in Hyderabad station will be expanded from the existing 328sq m to 1,624sq m as the railways plan to segregate arrival and departure passenger movements. “There will be state-of-the-art passenger information and display systems, security and fire safety systems in place. A new roof plaza is being developed that will expand the waiting area,” Jain added. Other railway stations in Telangana that will be developed include Adilabad, Bhadrachalam Road, Jangaon, Karimnagar, Kazipet Junction, Khammam, Madhira, Ramagundam, Tandur, Yadadri and Zaheerabad. An amount of 894 crore is being spent on developing these stations under phase one. Within the railway zone, Andhra Pradesh will have a total of 52 stations being developed at a cost of 1,174 crore, 19 fall under Maharashtra and three in Karnataka. A total of 2,079 crore has been allocated to SCR stations under ABSS.
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