Come Pongal, modern facilities to be ready for passengers

• Pilgrims can sit and relax with additional seating. A cloakroom and deluxe toilets are coming up
• Paid premium AC lounge with recliners and foot massagers is getting ready
• More CCTVs being installed for better security of the passengers
• All the works are expected to complete before Sankranti, says DRM

Tirupati: Pilgrims reaching Tirupati from far off places across the country in trains early in the morning will heave a sigh of relief very soon as the railway station will be equipped with modern waiting halls and toilets, and premium waiting lounge.

The works are in final stages and will be opened before Sankranti festival. Tirupati railway station is one of the busiest stations in the country with about 50,000 passengers and 107 trains travel through this station daily.

According to an estimate, it was projected that the daily passenger turnout will go up to 1.2 lakh in the next 30 years. It will be an uphill task for the railway authorities to meet all the requirements for the increasing number of passengers, especially in the congested station premises.

While the massive redevelopment plan of the station with about Rs 500 crore is yet to take off, South Central Railway (SCR) General Manager (GM) Vinod Kumar Yadav and Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Vijay Prathap Singh have been constantly monitoring and planning various other works to make passengers hassle free journey from this station.

The primary needs of the passengers are to be addressed first, which will be necessary even after the redevelopment, said the DRM.

Speaking to The Hans India, he said that they have focussed on basic things like sitting arrangements, toilets, security at the station and sufficient cloakrooms at the station and addressing them on fast track basis. With the cooperation of Ministry of Tourism, Rs 4 crore funds were earmarked to provide modern amenities.

With those funds, both general and AC waiting halls were upgraded with bathrooms and dressing rooms so that passengers can fresh up before going to hills. After shifting the RMS and parcel offices to another place on the 1st platform, officials have made it a big hall and developing it as a paid premium AC lounge and another food court also will come up nearby it.

Apart from modern toilets and luxury seating arrangements like recliners, about 8 to 10-foot massagers will be provided there as they will be more useful for pilgrims to get relaxed, who go to Tirumala on foot. Platform No 4 and 5 will have open waiting halls with seating arrangements.

The authorities have already provided 200 chairs at the station and another 200 will be kept in the renovated waiting halls and open waiting halls.

“Platforms are more crowded with passengers standing everywhere. In order to decongest the platforms, we need to keep them in waiting halls comfortably.

For this, more seating has to be provided wherever it is possible to help our passengers,” the DRM maintained.

The idea is to provide hassle free experience to the pilgrims at the station. Another cloakroom will be added to the existing one on the first platform.

To provide better security to passengers, additional CCTV cameras will be installed at the required places. The station will have better lighting and latest digital display boards to provide information to visiting pilgrims.

Also, the walls on the waiting halls were tastefully designed with paintings which were attracting the passengers.

To review the progress of works at waiting halls and other places, the DRM has visited Tirupati station on Wednesday evening and made it clear to the officials that these should be opened before Sankranti and made available for the pilgrims.

Station Director K Satyanarayana, Station Manager M Subodh Mithra and Engineering department officials have been constantly monitoring the works.

However, the station has been witnessing water problems very often. Along with the providing all these facilities, the officials should ensure that there will not be any water problem at any time.