The Ernakulam Town Railway station (also known as Ernakulam North station), one of the busiest railway stations in South India, would be developed as a “green building” as part of station redevelopment works, complying with Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) rating, the Railway has informed.
The aim is to offer airport-like facilities for passengers at the station that handles 90 trains daily and has an annual passenger footfall of 1.02 crore.
The tender for the redevelopment work was awarded in August 2022, following which preliminary work has begun and is progressing at a steady pace. The works executed so far include topographic survey and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) utility survey, drone and videography survey and soil investigation at six locations. The work to temporarily shift offices and other infrastructure is in progress, while the existing quarters were vacated and alternative accommodation arranged for residents. Work on dismantling the quarters is in progress.
Work on the optical fibre cables (OFC) repeater room and temporary shifting work of indoor transformer and panels in the substation building is in progress. The ₹150-crore redevelopment work must be completed in 36 months from August 2022.
As part of the station redevelopment plan, a three-storey West Terminal building will come up in place of the existing building, which will be demolished in three phases. On completion of Phase 1 of West Terminal building, railway offices will be shifted to the completed building. An air-concourse with skywalk connectivity, a new foot overbridge and multi-level car parking too will be set up.
The building will have a mezzanine floor, consisting of a total built up area of 14,506 sq.m (excluding concourse area). The ground will facilitate hassle-free movement of passengers with provision of dedicated arrival and departure corridors and will have world-class passenger amenities such as toilets, cloak room, baby care, feeding room, help desk, commercial outlets, and kiosk. The first floor will have waiting lounges for passengers with facilities like restaurants, retail outlets and toilets. The main feature of the floor is the air concourse to help passengers move to their respective platforms with the help of escalators and lifts. A skywalk will connect the building to the existing metro foot overbridge on the western side, and the proposed foot overbridge, says a Railway release.
A seven-deck multi-level car parking (MLCP) has been proposed at the existing staff quarters location, having a total built-up area of 9940 sq.m. with electric vehicle charging facility. It will have capacity to accommodate 218 cars and 22 two-wheelers.
