Chennai’s Egmore railway station 2.0: Where heritage meets modernity – Times of India

CHENNAI: In a few years, people will be able to drive in and park their vehicles at a multi-level parking facility and walk into a splashy new building located at the second entry of Egmore railway station.
Southern Railway will redevelop Egmore station’s second entry on the Poonamallee high road as the main entrance. This apart, it will extend the station building, redesign concourse area, add foot overbridges, subways, an overbridge for parcel movement and a multilevel parking as part of its effort to transform the second biggest railway station of the city into a world class facility.

There will be separate station buildings to handle arrivals and departures at Poonamallee High Road entrance and Gandhi Irwin Road entrance, respectively. There will be multi level parking facilities at both the entries.
The station currently handles around 1.5 lakh passengers per day and has emerged as a major multi-modal hub comprising metro rail, suburban trains, express trains and buses.
The space in front of the second entry will be used for a new station building and a host of facilities, with a link to the underground metro rail station.
The available railway land along the main road is likely to be taken up for commercial development under the station development programme.
An agency identified for the work will design and build it in two years and will operate the station building for five years. A tender has been floated to identify a firm and the project is scheduled to be completed in two years after being awarded.
Southern Railway chief public relations officer B Guganesan said, “The existing heritage station building will remain as such and no changes will be made. The station will be developed by adding facilities in the existing space. It’s in the early stages of the concept. Many meetings have been held to discuss the finer details of changes that need to be done to the existing facilities to start development work.”
Railways may have to rejig the existing facilities, including parking space and pathways, to construct the station building on the second entry. These will be decided at a later stage, an official said.
Discussions are still on to finalise details of space and railway buildings that need to be taken up for the work.
The tender documents say that the work should be carried out in the existing station area, without hindering and affecting railway operations.
The responsibility to redevelop stations has fallen on respective zones after the railways disbanded Railway Stations Development Corporation. The railway zone has set up a core group to identify stations to redevelop and use land for commercial purposes.