The Hindu Business Line : Tirupati railway station to be remodelled

THE South Central Railway (SCR) has embarked on various developmental activities including remodelling of the Tirupati Railway Station, construction of a new railway station at Tiruchanur, doubling of the entire railway track near Renigunta and launching of the second phase of multi-mode transport system (MMTS) in Hyderabad.

The SCR General Manager, Mr T. Stanley Babu, who was here to take part in the 40th anniversary celebrations of Gooty Diesel Loco Shed, said that to reduce traffic congestion at the Tirupati Railway Station, it was decided to shift the train maintenance facility from the place to Tiruchanur and add three more platforms at the station to cope up with the ever increasing influx of pilgrims into the temple town.

He told newspersons that the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, had agreed to allot land at Tiruchanur where a railway station would be established. Following this, new trains to be operated between Tirupati and various other places would proceed to Tiruchanur without touching Tirupati.

Mr Babu said that the doubling and electrification of railway tracks around Renigunta would be completed by March 2004. By the same time, doubling of Renigunta-Guntakal-Raichur railway track, electrification of Renigunta-Nandalur track and conversion of Guntakal-Dornakal metre gauge track into broad gauge was likely to be completed.

He said that the phase two of MMTS in Hyderabad would be launched by the first week of the next month. The sub-urban traffic would be opened up to Medchal and Manoharabad located on the outskirts of the city.

Meanwhile, the construction of metro rail stations at Necklace Road and Lakid-ka-Pul would be completed.

The SCR chief said that in order to improve the number of metro rail passengers, various steps have been proposed. These include introduction of catering services in trains, increasing the frequency of buses connecting railway stations, removing the bottlenecks for the issue of rail-cum-road tickets and synchronising the metro rail timings to the timings of major trains starting from and arriving at the railway stations in the twin cities.

Currently, about 11,000 to 12,000 passengers were travelling by metro rail daily, much less than what did the Railways expect.

Referring to other train services, he said that it was proposed to extend the Padmavathi express train services, currently being operated between Secunderabad and Tirupati, up to Chittoor.

The timings of the Narayandri express train would be rescheduled so that it would reach Secunderabad from Tirupati daily by 7.30 in the morning. SCR would also operate 23 Sabarimala special trains, 12 from Secunderabad and 11 from Kakinada this month.

This apart, three trains would be operated every week from Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Renigunta, Dharmavaram and Guntur to Secunderabad for the benefit of those appearing for the "Group B" examinations being conducted by Railways. Commenting on the Gooty Diesel Loco Shed, Mr Babu said that it was one of the best maintenance sheds of Indian Railways.

The shed has 1,000 motivated workers and it was maintaining 135 diesel locomotives. "The engines maintained by this shed rarely failed and thus it has won many awards."

Established on December 5, 1963, the shed at Gooty is stated to be the first in the chain of diesel sheds established in the entire southern region of the country. It has designed and developed Auto Emergency Braking System in 1998 that automatically applies emergency brakes to trains exceeding the speed of 25 km per hour.

This device, according to the railway officials, has made it possible to operate passenger train services in the Goa section known for its steep terrain. The shed has received an award of Rs 10 lakh from the Minister of State for Railways for this innovation.

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