The Southern Railway Construction Organisation has set in motion the process for identifying a consultant to prepare the master plan and a detailed project report for redevelopment of the Kumbakonam railway station falling under the limits of the Tiruchi Railway Division.
The organisation had already floated a tender to finalise the consultant for the project. Four consultancy firms had submitted their bids after the tender was floated with evaluation of technical and financial bids under way. The experience and expertise of the consultancy firm in railway-related projects would be taken into consideration prior to identifying one of them for preparing the master plan and the detailed project report for the proposed redevelopment project, railway sources told The Hindu’. With the tender process already on, the Southern Railway Construction Organisation is expected to finalise the consultant in a month’s time, the sources further said.
Once identified, the consultancy firm would depute its team to make a field visit to the Kumbakonam station to carry out a complete survey of the station to ascertain among others the existing facilities and amenities, average passenger footfalls recorded every day, the new amenities that could be created for rail travellers and improvements to the station. The proposed redevelopment was aimed at multi-level improvement of facilities at the station for the benefit of the rail travellers, said the sources.
The consultant would ascertain the requirements of the Tiruchi railway divisional authorities for redevelopment of the station prior to preparing the detailed master plan which would serve as the blueprint of the proposed project. Simultaneously, the consultant would also prepare the detailed project report.
The Southern Railway Construction Organisation and the Tiruchi Division would have joint meetings ahead of finalising the master plan and the detailed project report. The sources said there were certain guidelines laid out by the Railway Board for station development which would be followed. The preparation of the master plan and the detailed project report is expected to be completed before the end of this year or latest by early January, the sources said. The detailed project report and the estimate would thereafter be forwarded to the Railway Board, New Delhi through the Southern Railway headquarters for sanction of funds.
Kumbakonam was identified as one among the four railway stations in the Southern Railway zone for redevelopment with the other three being Tirunelveli, Chenganur and Thrissur. The Southern Railway Construction Organisation has been vested with the task of executing the project in all the four stations.
