KOCHI: Passengers inconvenienced by the construction activities at Ernakulam Junction and Ernakulam Town railway stations, will have to bear with them for now.
As per an RTI reply from the Southern Railway, redevelopment of Ernakulam Junction (South) railway station will be over only by 2028. For Ernakulam Town (North) station, the commissioning date is December 2027. The original deadline, when the project was announced and tender awarded, was 2026.
As per the reply, work at Ernakulam Junction was delayed due to the termination of the contract awarded to Bridge and Roof Company India Ltd, a Kolkata-based public sector undertaking.
“The contract was terminated in May 2025 after it was found that the work was not progressing as expected. A new contract was awarded in October 2025. At present, work for the Junction railway station is progressing well, and the project will be completed by February 2028,” the reply from Southern Railway said.
The redevelopment project there is being undertaken at a revised budget of around Rs 380 crore. The Southern Railway has allocated Rs 6.2 crore for the redevelopment for the 2026-27 financial year.
In the case of Ernakulam Town, the Southern Railway said the station building work for segment-I is in progress. “Only after Segment-I work is completed can execution of works related to Segments 2 and 3 be taken up. The expected date of completion for Ernakulam Town station redevelopment is December 2027,” it said.
The Rs 150.28-crore redevelopment project is being carried out by Chennai-based RANK Projects and Development Pvt Ltd, which was awarded the contract in August 2022. The first phase was expected to be commissioned by May 2026.
As per the RTI reply, the fund allocated for the Town railway station for the 2026-27 financial year is Rs 56 lakh.