Symbols of the Pandya dynasty, aspects of the famous Meenakshi temple and a sculpture of a bull representing the Jallikattu sport will part of the redeveloped Madurai railway station, the Southern Railway has said.
Construction work of the station will be completed by November 2025 and will promote the city's culture and heritage, it said. The Madurai Junction is one of the 1,318 stations short-listed for redevelopment under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (ABBS).
"The entrance of the station will resemble the 'Gopuram (gateway tower)' of the Meenakshi temple which has great historical, architectural and religious significance. Its interiors will be decorated with paintings of fishes (emblem of the Pandya dynasty) and other heritage symbols," Deputy Chief Engineer, Madurai Division, R Nand Gopal, said.
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He added that as Jallikattu is a traditional and important sporting event in Madurai, the station will have a statue of a bull at the entrance hall. The east terminal building will have three floors. Offices and passenger amenities in the ground floor, railway offices on the mezzanine floor, an air-concourse on the first floor and retiring rooms and commercial spaces on the second floor.
Gopal said that the station, at present, handles 96 trains a day and registers an average daily passenger footfall of 51,296. The station is used by scores of tourists from across the country and abroad, he added.
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"We studied the increase in passenger footfall of the last 10 years and realised that the annual growth is between one to two per cent. Going by that calculation, 40 years from now the footfall will be double at about 1 lakh. We are creating amenities keeping this in mind," he said.
Asked what would be the revenue model to meet operation costs, Gopal said instead of increasing prices for various facilities, the railways aims to generate revenues from commercial spaces. "Besides train passengers, the station will attract other people as its commercial spaces will have (stores of) big brands and eateries," he said.
Other facilities include three multi-level parking facilities, multi-modal connectivity such as subways to connect the Periyar bus station and the Madurai Railway station, skywalks with escalators and lifts, and foot over bridges for movement of passengers and parcels.
According to the Southern Railway, it had awarded the work of redeveloping the station on September 22, 2022, on contract to M/s P&C Projects Private Limited, Chennai, at a cost of Rs 347.47 crore, setting a time-frame of 36 months for the project's completion.
"M/s TUV India Private Limited, Mumbai, has been tasked with the work of project management services (PMS) at a cost of Rs 10.88 crore. The PMS consultant is responsible for monitoring the project," Gopal said.
