Nellore railway station to get world-class amenities

Nellore: The ministry of railways has embarked upon the ambitious project of ‘Redevelopment of railway stations’ with world-class smart amenities and an elegant look and feel.

Nellore railway station is one of the stations considered for such redevelopment on a grand scale. The estimated cost of this project is around Rs 100 crore which will be executed jointly by the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) and National Buildings Construction Company Ltd (NBCC).

 Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu, along with railway minister Piyush Goyal, would lay the foundation stone for the ambitious project during his visit to Nell-ore on February 21, 2019.

According to railway authorities, Nellore station will be developed as an energy efficient and eco-friendly station by implementing various green and energy initiatives.

They include green terraces, cellular rainwater harvesting, solar panels, LED lighting, use of energy efficient devices, use of insulation on the roof top, capacitors at load centres, high efficiency motors, part solar external lighting etc.

Nellore railway station redevelopment project is an upgradation project, keeping in view the expected additional infl-ow of passengers in the next few years. The station complex will be integrated with infrastructu-re facilities to provide a seamless experience to the passengers by providing world-class infrastru-cture and iconic architecture, duly utilising the commercial potential of the station.

At present, Nellore railway station is non-suburban grade 3 (A-category) station and is located in the busiest and important railway trunk route of Vijayawada-Chennai.  

This station handles 43 pairs of express trains and seven pairs of passenger trains every day. The average footfall per day is around 25,000.

At present, there are four platforms, four metre foot over bridge, three escalators covering all platforms, three lifts, booking office with seven counters, enquiry office, public address system, food plaza, recreation rooms, three ATMs, both upper class and general waiting halls etc.

Nellore city is a district headquarters and the fourth populous district in Andhra Pradesh.

It has tourist destinations like Pulicat lake (second largest brackish water lagoon in India), Nelapattu bird sanctuary, Ranganathaswamy temple, Udayagiri fort, Venkatagiri fort, Khaja Rahamatulla Dargah etc.

The district is also on the Science & Technology map with the establishment of ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre (Rocket launching centre).