Hitherto restricted to the movement of passengers and parcels, the Mangaluru Central Railway Station will soon become a commercial hub with the plans and designs for the station building and railway colony redevelopment reaching final stages.
Mangaluru Central is one among the 70 stations for which the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), was entrusted with the preparation of the plan and design for redevelopment. RLDA has said the redevelopment of Railway Stations provides an opportunity to not only modernise the transportation infrastructure, but also to create vibrant, sustainable and interconnected urban centres.
Divisional Railway Manager of Palakkad Railway Division Arun Kumar Chaturvedi told The Hindu that the planning and design for Mangaluru Central redevelopment has reached the final stage with the RLDA. They would be handed over to the Construction Wing of Southern Railway soon, after which the Zone would call tenders for redevelopment execution.
Broad plans
Ahead of finalising the design and plan, the Railways has broadly conceptualised how the stations would look once they are redeveloped, Mr. Chaturvedi said. The Central would resemble a city commercial centre with space for a host of commercial activities, including shopping, cinema, restaurant etc. Ample parking space with multi-level car parking facility too would be developed for passengers as well as visitors.
While the platforms would continue to remain on the ground floor, the concourse (circulating area) would be shifted to the first floor with large waiting halls and other passenger amenities after razing the existing station building. There would be foot overbridges 48 metres long and 12 metres wide connecting all the five platforms of the station.
Offices at the station premises would be shifted to multi-storey buildings to be constructed to save space. Similarly, the Railway Colony abutting the Central Station, too, would be redesigned and redeveloped. The vast extent of land where individual housing units were located at present would be optimally utilised. Multi-storey apartments would replace the individual houses so as to open up more space.
Space utilisation
The historical concept of railway stations just facilitating people’s movement has changed with increase in urban population while cities have recognised the potential of underutilised spaces around stations to become multifunctional urban hubs. As such, RLDA was implementing modular construction for selected stations, the Authority said.
