Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi on Saturday said that the Hubballi Railway Station would be upgraded into a world-class station and the foundation stone for the same would be laid soon.
He was speaking to presspersons after inaugurating the two new escalators on platform no. 1 of Shree Siddharoodha Swamiji (SSS) Hubballi Railway Station on Saturday.
Mr. Joshi said that the plan for upgrading the railway station into a world class railway station was being prepared and within the tenure of the present government at the Centre, the foundation stone for the work would be laid.
The Minister said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made it a point to inaugurate the works, the foundation stones for which were laid during his tenure and the same would happen in the case of Hubballi Railway station also.
Mr. Joshi said that under the NDA government, many development works were taken up at Hubbali Railway Station to make it a station with airport-like facilities.
The chairman of Karnataka Legislative Council Basavaraj Horatti, MLC S.V. Sankanur, Hubballi Dharwad Mayor Veena Baradwad, General Manager of South Western Railway Sanjeev Kishore and others were present.
The SSS Railway Station is one of the busiest railway stations in the railway zone with a daily average footfall of around 32,000. The station already had two escalators – one on Platform No. 2/3 and one on Platform No. 4/5. In addition, two escalators, one moving in the up direction and one moving in the down direction on Platform No. 1 have been set up, which were inaugurated on Saturday.
The two new escalators have been set up at a total cost of ₹2.08 crore and the work was executed by Gati Shakti Unit of Hubballi Division. The maximum carrying capacity of each escalator is 100 passengers per minute.