Bhubaneswar, Nov. 2: The agencies tasked with the implementation of the Smart City project here have prepared the final design of the proposed railway station multi-modal hub at Master Canteen Square, taking the city a step closer to its smart dream.

According to the design drawn up by Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL), the Bhubaneswar Development Authority and a consulting firm, the Rs 205-crore multi-modal hub will have a centralised four-storey railway station building with basement parking, an amphitheatre, a mela prangan, parks and commercial complexes among other things. Three high-rise buildings with around 30 floors each will also be built.

The first tower will come up next to the existing railway station building, while the second onewill be built after demolishing the city bus stand. The Ashoka Market Complex will make way for the third tower. A four-lane road from Master Canteen Square will also be built to lead to the station entrance.

The administration plans to house shopping malls, theatres and other market areas in the three towers. The shopkeepers who will be evicted from Ashoka Market Complex for the project will also be rehabilitated in the towers. "The Ashoka Market Complex building may collapse anytime. The administration should demolish it as soon as possible and rehabilitate us in the new building," said Biraja Mishra, a mobile shop owner.

The upcoming project aims to give a major facelift to the present railway station area with state-of-the-art amenities such as energy sub-stations, semi-underground domestic and fire-fighting water reservoirs with pump rooms, rainwater harvesting system and garbage compartments. It will also have landscaped open greens, internal roads and surface parking areas.

"This is a huge project planned under the Smart City Mission. It needs big investments. Our experts have prepared the design for the project. In the next move, we will prepare the detailed project report and begin work. We aim to complete the entire project by 2020," said an official of BSCL.

The East Coast Railways and the state's public works department have signed an MoU to build the centralised four-storey railway station building, which will come up after demolishing the present structures. The building will have a basement parking facility for 400 four-wheelers and 5,000 two-wheelers.

In a step towards implementing the project, the East Coast Railways today moved the reservation counter to a temporary facility near the city bus stand. "We have constructed a temporary structure and shifted the reservation counter to begin work on the upcoming railway station building. We will begin the demolition drive on the existing building within a week or so," said chief engineer buildings S.R. Sethy. He added that they were in talks with the BDA to begin the demolition process.

This part of the project will be executed for Rs 52 crore of which the works department has already received Rs 10 crore.

"The building will have centralised air-conditioning. It will have four second-class waiting rooms for men and women, respectively, with a capacity of 250 passengers each and four upper-class waiting rooms for men and women with a capacity of 100 passengers each," said Sethy.

A passenger at the railway station Harihar Parida said the present railway station area was quite good except for the parking and the pick-up and drop facilities for passengers. "The parking is full almost all the time. There is also little space to park four-wheelers. The place where passengers are picked up and dropped by cabs or auto drivers is congested because of space constraints. I hope that the upcoming project will solve these problems," said Parida, a resident of Unit I.

"There was a lot of speculation among the city residents about when the administration would begin work on the smart city project, because we saw no sign of development. The authorities have chosen the best place to begin, as converting the railway station area into a state-of-the-art facility will definitely add to the face value of the city," said Kiran Agrawal, a passenger.

Ashok Nagar resident Jayanta Padhi said it was unbelievable that the administration was starting work on this project so fast. "Usually, such projects take years to begin and longer to get completed. I appreciate the administration's efforts to start fast-track the project. I hope they continue to work like this and complete the project soon," said Padhi, a private school teacher.