The South Western Railway (SWR) announced that the redevelopment of Bengaluru Cantonment, Karnataka's oldest railway station, will be finished by October 2025.

SWR is transforming the Cantonment Railway Station in Bengaluru into a world-class structure while preserving its heritage value.

Railway officers have confirmed that the Rs 480 crore project is currently underway and will be completed on schedule.

On 20 June 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the redevelopment of the Cantonment Railway Station.

As part of the redevelopment, the preliminary work involves the demolition of existing service buildings, which is currently in progress. This will allow for the construction of a 24 m diversion road, creating more space in front of the station building and expanding the circulating area in front of the station.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and SWR are working closely together to widen the road and ensure smooth traffic flow.

Varindera Construction Private Limited has been awarded the LoA to execute the project on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode.

An expert team, led by Associate Professor NM Anoop Krishnan from IIT Delhi has been brought in for technical consultancy as structural drawings are currently being prepared.

The project is progressing well, with engineers working day and night at the site office to complete the identification and shifting of utilities such as cables and power transformers within the targeted period.

The Chief Public Relations Officer of South Western Railway, Aneesh Hegde, announced that the contractor has established a batching plant for ready-mix concrete at the site.

Redevelopment Plan

As per the proposed redevelopment plan, a new station building will come up on the main entry — Vasanthnagar side, and the second entry — Millers Road. Ticket issuing counters will be completely separated from the entrance concourse for easy flow of public and passengers.

Separate pick-up and drop zones will be built to help reduce congestion. There will be a two-floor basement parking facility on both main and second entry points.

The proposed redeveloped station will have salient features such as centralised air-conditioning, multi-level car parking, a sewerage treatment plant, rainwater harvesting and solar energy.

The redeveloped Cantonment Railway Station will emerge as a transport hub as three rail networks currently under construction will be integrated. Besides the existing rail network, Cantonment will have a suburban rail system and Namma Metro’s underground station nearby.

The K-RIDE (Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Ltd) is building the Kengeri-Whitefield suburban rail network via Cantonment.

Under the Namma metro phase 2, BMRCL is constructing a tunnel network from Dairy Circle to Nagawara, and the proposed Cantonment metro station is located 500-800 meters from the existing rail station.