INNANJE, UDUPI: A new railway station with modern facilities along with a 1.1-km loop-line (railway track) would be commissioned here by the end of next year as part of the Konkan Railway’s drive to provide better facilities to the people of the region.

The commissioning of the new railway station, where only two trains halt at present at a small railway station, the size of a room, will serve the people of villages such as Shankarpura, Subashnagar, Katapady, Manchakal, Paniyur, Manjedy, Pangala, Bantakal and Shriva. A lot of people from these places travel to Mumbai and Bengaluru and are employed across the country and abroad. At present, people have to travel about 12 km by road to Udupi to catch an express train. The work on this new station started in April 2017.

Briefing presspersons here on Wednesday, Vijay Kumar, Assistant Executive Engineer, Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd., said that the new platform would be 560 m long. It will be a high-level platform with a full-fledged railway station, which is being constructed at a cost of ₹ 6.78 crore.

This station is equidistant (nine kilometres on either side) to the two railway stations — Udupi in the North and Padubidri in the South. “The construction of the station will also help in facilitating train crossings because of the loop line. Hence, it will be converted from a block station to a crossing station,” he said.

Earthwork by March

The earthwork for the station would be completed by March 2018, while the railway station, platform and staff quarters would be completed by June 2018. The commissioning of the station would be done in November 2018.

The railway station will have waiting rooms, station master’s room, signal room, electrical room, relay room, generator room, and toilet facility. “After the commissioning of this station, more trains will be able to stop here. But this will also depend on public demand,” said Sudha Krishnamurthy, Public Relations Officer.

A full-fledged crossing railway station is being constructed at Mirjan between Kumta and Gokarn in Uttara Kannada district. It would be completed in December 2018 at a cost of ₹ 7.12 crore.

One more platform and railway track would be laid and a foot overbridge connecting the two platforms would be constructed at the railway station in Murdeshwar by March 2018 at a cost of ₹ 5.89 crore, Mr. Kumar said.