Secunderabad station upgradation work gains momentum

Hyderabad: The re-development of the Secunderabad railway station is on at a brisk pace. In the first stage, the lead design director, safety consultant and proof consultant have been appointed so as to finalise the design. IIT-Delhi has been appointed as the proof consultant to evaluate the upcoming structural design of the building.

According to SCR officials, the Ministry of Railways has taken up the prestigious project of 'Re-development of Secunderabad railway station to provide world-class amenities with elegant features and give aesthetic look.

The SCR has undertaken upgradation of the station and has awarded the contract to M/s. Girdharilal Construction Pvt Ltd in October 2022. The project has been awarded in engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC mode) and is targeted for completion by October 2025. The cost is Rs 699 crore.

To complete the work within the targeted time, the necessary ground work has already commenced. Further, topographic survey of the site has been completed giving complete details of the location. It is done to identify the elevation of the surface proposed at different levels i.e., basement, ground, mezzanine, first and second floor levels.

Also, architects use the topographical survey to create a 3D plot of the design for construction of the proposed building, sky concourse, FOBs, pertaining to the re-development of the station, said a senior SCR officer. Geo-technic investigation (soil exploration) has also been conducted at various locations of the north and south terminals of station building for identifying the soil strata and to design the building structures/steel structures foundations suitably.

A new building / structure incorporating the RPF Armory and Cash Guard are to come up as part of the station upgradation. This requires dismantling of old railway quarters. Accordingly, they have been dismantled to allow commencement of construction work.

To undertake the construction and to monitor on real-time basis, a site office, along with site laboratory, has been established on the South side of the station building. The station is the only NSG1 category station (non-suburban grade 1) on the zone handling annually more than 20 million passengers. To provide world-class facilities to passengers, the railways has undertaken to upgrade the station with best of modern amenities.

Arun Kumar Jain, SCR General Manager, said, "the progress of the station upgradation work is being closely monitored at all levels. Its major objective is to re-develop and re-generate city's core area with multi modal integration and seamless movement of passengers. That the new station building will have convenient pick up and drop off areas for passengers, adequate parking, while de-congesting the circulating area and integrating it with the city, he added.