Varindera Construction bags order worth ₹442 crore to redevelop Bengaluru Cantt Railway Station

Bengaluru, India (Urban Transport News): The South Western Railway (SWR) of Indian Railways has issued a contract order/letter of acceptance (LoA) worth Rs 442 crore to Varindera Construction Pvt. Ltd. to redevlop Bengaluru Cantonment Railway station under Indian Railways' station redevelopment scheme on 12th December 2022. The station will be upgraded on EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) model and redevelopment work is expected to be completed within 36 months.

Tender for redevelopment of Delhi Cantt Railway Station was floated in June 2022 with an estimated cost of construction of Rs 525 crore. 

The proposed redeveloped station will have salient features such as centralised air-conditioning, multi-level car parking, sewerage treatment plant, rain water harvesting and solar energy. The SWR will also integrate the station with the proposed suburban rail network.

"The new station building will come up on the main entry – Vasanthnagar side, and second entry – Millers Road. Ticket issuing counters will be completely separated from the entrance concourse for easy flow of public and passengers. Separate pick up and drop zones will be built that will help in reducing the congestion. There will be a two-floor basement parking facility on both main and second entry points," said Aneesh Hegde, CPRO, SWR.

“The proposed infrastructure will help in giving more comfort of travel for passengers and increase the footfall. For the benefit of commuters, various amenities will come up including basement parking facilities and construction of railway over bridges connecting either end of the station. At present, there is congestion at the entry point. Existing roads will be widened for smooth flow of the traffic,” Mr. Singh said. The official said that enhanced infrastructure will help to increase the footfall from 75,000 to 1 lakh per day," commented Shyam Singh, Divisional Railway Manager, SWR.

In future, the Bengaluru Cantonment Railway Station will turn into a multi-modal transport hub as three rail networks will be integrated here. Other than the existing Indian rail network, this station will have a suburban rail system and Bangalore Metro’s underground station nearby. The Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Ltd. (K-RIDE) is building the Kengeri-Whitefield suburban rail network via Cantonment.