South Central Railway to take up Tirupati station redevelopment

Tirupati: Now, it has been clear that the much awaited Rs 400 crore ambitious Tirupati railway station redevelopment plan, which was finalised earlier, will not be executed. Instead, a new one has been initiated under which South Central Railway has decided to take up the three main stations - Tirupati, Nellore and Secunderabad redevelopment works in this fiscal itself with an allocated funds of Rs 325 crore.

It may be recalled that in 2017, the station redevelopment plan was mooted to be taken up in about six-lakh square feet which includes commercial development including budget and star hotels, restaurants etc.

While no progress was made till 2021 except preparing plans and a miniature model of the proposed works which is now on display at the station's main entrance concourse, the Railway Ministry has sanctioned an amount of Rs 325 crore for station development works over SCR in 2022-23.

Under this, SCR will take over the redevelopment works of Tirupati station along with Nellore station from RLDA.

Also, another 47 stations development works were taken over by the SCR following the closure of Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC). Under this, the commercial development part will be ignored and it will be confined to passenger amenities.

Speaking to The Hans India, SCR Chief PRO Ch Rakesh revealed that in the first phase, the zone will undertake the development of three major stations – Tirupati, Nellore and Secunderabad. Already the conceptual plans for all the three stations have been finalised and joint inspection of both the construction, organisation and the divisional teams has also been completed. Based on that, the facilities to be provided as part of the projects have also been finalised and the detailed planning is being made now.

He added that 'Engineering, Procurement and Construction' contract (EPC Contract) tenders will be invited for each station individually. Under 'EPC contract', the contractor holds the responsibility towards the design, procurement, construction, commissioning and handover of a project. The tendering process may commence soon and positively the works may be commenced in another six months.

Needless to say, successive railway ministers for the past two decades were saying that Tirupati station will be developed with world-class facilities in view of its importance but no progress was made till now. The idea gathered momentum in 2017 when then GM of South Central Railway (SCR) V K Yadav showed interest in it. At that time, it was said the project will be taken up by Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) on PPP mode and the station will become world-class by 2021.

But, the project encountered several hurdles at different stages with which it remained on papers only till now. In 2020, it was even said that RLDA has completed the first phase of the two-stage tendering process and the financial bids are to be called for. Now, the whole idea was dropped and SCR itself will take up the project.