After many years, the Katpadi railway station will get a makeover with key basic amenities for passengers, train service expansion, inter-transport connectivity and facilities for disabled persons.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the ₹365-crore Station Redevelopment Project through a video conference from Chennai on Thursday.
Tucked between major railway junctions like Jolarpet to the north and Arakkonam to the south, the Katpadi junction covers around 86 acres along the Palar, connecting key stations like Vellore Cantonment, Walajah Road, Arcot, Sholinghur and Tiruvalam.
The station handles around 260 trains and about 30,000 passengers daily. The station’s total originating passenger earnings for 2020-2021 was ₹10.5 crore. “It is a major connecting hub for commuters heading to heritage and religious spots and the Christian Medical College and Vellore Institute of Technology. A makeover for such a station was long overdue,” Vellore Mayor Sujatha Anandakumar, who attended the event, told The Hindu.
Under the Station Redevelopment Project, which aims to future-proof the station for the next four decades, officials said the station would house world-class amenities and airport-like features, including separate arrival and departure corridors, bright LED illumination, hassle-free access to platforms through escalators, lifts and skywalks and a rainwater harvesting system.
The station will be aesthetically designed with facade lighting arrangements, landscaping and dedicated parking lots for the streamlined movement of vehicles and pedestrians in exclusive lanes. Spacious concourse and waiting halls and efficient water and energy management measures, including utilisation of solar power, are part of the plan.
On the occasion, Members of Parliament D. Kathir Anand (Vellore) and S. Jagathrakshakan (Arakkonam), Vellore Collector P. Kumaravel Pandian, Additional Divisional Railway Manager (Chennai division) Puneeth Sachin and Katpadi station manager K. Ravindranath participated.
