Finding passenger traffic bursting at its seams at the existing Tirupati railway station, the South Central Railway (SCR) authorities are contemplating developing Tirupati West railway station into a terminal for west-bound trains. The station, located 2 km west of the main station, at present has halt only for passenger trains and is grossly under-utilised.
SCR General Manager Ravindra Gupta, who inspected the station premises on Friday during his maiden visit to the temple city on Friday, admitted that the station was “land-locked” and hence offered little scope for expansion.
“The only alternative on hand is to develop a new terminal with sufficient platforms and facilities to maintain passenger trains. We consider Tirupati West as an option,” he said.
There are a number of trains from Tirupati towards Guntakal and Katpadi.
All the trains bound for western Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala have to invariably pass through Tirupati West and terminating them at this station will decongest the eastern station a lot.
He announced that the station would be developed in-house or under the now-defunct World Class railway station project.
Though without much progress, the World Class project is very much on the drawing board, Mr. Gupta maintained.
Guntakal Divisional Railway Manager B. Gopinath Mallya, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Sami Naik and South Central Railway Public Relations Officer Shakeel Ahmed were present.
