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The Central Station at present has five platforms, which is grossly inadequate to accommodate the increasing number of trains and passengers on an annual basis. But the number of platforms cannot be increased right now as the pit lines beyond the platforms is needed to 'park' and do maintenance work on long distance trains. To solve this problem, the Kochuveli station, claimed to be the satellite terminal to Trivandrum Central Station, was opened in the year 2005 to handle long distance express and superfast trains. The plan was for the fully developed station to have 12 platforms on various levels. It was to be the first multi level railway station in South India.
However, the current picture of the place is...
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a far cry from the 'multi level' station envisaged for Kochuveli. At present, the station has two platforms, of which only one can be used since the platforms are yet to be connected with a foot overbridge. The station building and the premises lie devoid of any activity expect when a train leaves or arrives at the station. There is one pit line, with two more under construction.
Train rakes are brought here from the Central Station for light maintenance work The lack of development of this satellite terminal means that commuters and the railways will have to continue depending on the already exhausted Central Station to bring in more trains. One way of doing it is to expand the Central station in the limited space available by moving the maintenance and repair work to the Kochuveli, taking the rakes back to the station only at the needed time. There is enough space for the Central Station to have 10 or even 12 platforms at present, if the pit lines could be removed from there to make way for more platforms.