South Central Railway (SCR) appears to be once again looking at the Hi-Tec City railway station as a possible key passing through or perhaps, even a key terminal station, in the west side of the capital.
While Lingampally station, six kilometres ahead with six platforms has become the fourth terminal with some trains terminating and de-congesting the Secunderabad railway station, Hi-Tec City station too is getting a new look.
Infrastructure work is currently underway to extend the two platforms at a cost of close ₹2 crore. Circulating and parking areas in both sides are getting a facelift and two lifts are being installed at a cost of ₹70 lakh. As of now, express trains have no halt here but it is a key station for MMTS local trains that got suspended due to the pandemic. There is no surety about their movement even though Metro rail got the green signal.
Several express trains towards Mumbai, Wadi and Bengaluru, including the Rajdhani, Hussainsagar, Konark and others, can be provided halts here to cater to the needs of people living in this part of the fast-growing region, once the work including extension of platforms to handle 24 coach trains is completed, observed senior officials.
There is no scope for any expansion for Begumpet station but there is a possibility of having a couple of platforms at Hi-Tec City station where we have upto 10 acres of land, they revealed.
Incidentally, SCR had sought 300 acres when it put up a proposal for setting up a new modern passenger terminal a decade ago when the government was willing to give 30 acres. The project got shifted to Vattinagulapally beyond Lingampally with similar land area demand, but there has been no progress.
Anyway, without waiting for the Telangana government to provide additional 200 acres sought at Charlapalli, the SCR is going ahead with building a big passenger terminal at Charlapalli.
Two platforms are being built in the first phase in the 50 acres land under its possession and another four platforms are to be built in the next phase at a total estimated cost of ₹230 crore. We will expand facilities and originally planned 10 platforms when we receive more land from the government, added senior officials, wishing to remain anonymous.
