Vijayawada: Vijayawada Railway Junction is all set to see some major renovation works taking place this year as with the Railways planning to shell out Rs 40 crore for its development.Explaining the works that are being undertaken, Vijayawada divisional railway manager R Dhananjayulu said they are planning to build another footover bridge between Platforms 1 and 10. An additional set of escalators too will be built at the railway station “Already, almost all platforms have one escalator each but the decision to have another set is to help passengers coming from different entrances to have quicker access to other platforms. Similarly, extra lifts will be built for passenger convenience. This time, we are focusing on renovating retiring rooms for our railway staff and face-lifting the entrances under the budget,” Dhananjayulu told TOI.Another parking lot too is going to be developed at the Platform 10 entrance area at Gandhi Hill side. While the Vijayawada railway station is the third busiest junction in Indian Railways with over 150 trains on an average transiting the place daily, officials are soon going to develop Rayanapadu Junction as a satellite station to decongest some of the traffic passing through Vijayawada.Some of the trains would be diverted to Rayanapadu and officials are looking to tie up with APSRTC to have special bus services to Vijayawada. Within the Rs 40 crore budget, officials are looking to address the chaotic traffic prevailing near Vijayawada railway station.“We are looking to streamline the traffic near Vijayawada station. Roughly, 1,000 buses transit the railway station premises and we would be doing some changes to ease the traffic flow,” Dhananjayulu added.Also, a railway underpass would soon come up near Rayanapadu and the division is also planning to construct another underpass at Madhura Nagar area.The DRM said Vijayawada Railway Division has set an unprecedented record by witnessing 40% revenue growth in the first quarter of 2018-19 financial year.Dhananjayulu said there has been 8% growth in passenger earnings and also the bulk of the profit, which comes from freight trains has also increased due to the cargo exports that have been going well at Kakinada and Krishnapatnam port.

Stay updated with all the Latest Visakhapatnam headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.