Tirupati: The South Coast Railway Zone’s Tiruchanur Railway Station, which will help ease the heavy traffic flow of pilgrims at the Tirupati station, will become operational by March 2020, a railway official said on Thursday.
The station, likely to be re-christened as Tirupati East is being constructed at a cost of Rs 56 crore, up from its original cost of Rs 32 crore, said Alok Tiwari, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Guntakal Division.
“Tirupati station is always crowded with lakhs of devotees who come from all over the world to visit the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara. The Tiruchanur Railway Station, which should be operational by March 2020, will help taking some load off it,” said the DRM.
The per day average footfall at Tirupati station is over and above 75,000 passengers, he said. Nestled between Tirupati and Renigunta stations, the Tiruchanur Railway Station besides being the nearest alighting point to Sri Padmavathi temple, is also a shortcut to the Tirumala hills via Mangla. Tiwari said the raiways was mulling a change of name of the station to ensure that passengers don’t get confused between the similar sounding names – Tirupati and Tiruchanur.