After a long wait,the Central Railway Station here is all set to get a facelift with an add on for addressing passenger amenities.
Towards fulfilling the declaration of the Railways a year ago that the capital city railway station would be converted into a world class facility, Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor laid the foundation-stone on Saturday for commencement of the work of four escalators, three passenger lifts, one foot over bridge and a sky walk connecting the KSRTC stand with the Power House Road entry of Thampanoor station.The total estimated outlay for the work is Rs 6.6 crore. Once realised, the facilities will go a long way to comfort passengers, especially those who want to change over from Thampanoor bus stand to East fort bus stand/Pazhavangadi areas.
Rakesh Misra, General Manager,Southern Railway; Rajesh Agrawal, Divisional Railway Manager; T Kuppan, Additional Divisional Railway Manager and senior railway officials attended the function.
Adding more passenger amenities at the Central Station and other stations in the district was a long pending demand of the public. The Railway Budget-2011 had earmarked Rs 30 lakh for the phase-II development of the station but it was taken as a meagre amount considering the extent of development. The central station lacks enough toilets and even a good cloak room,among other things.