New Delhi: The Indian Railways will spend over ₹24,470 crore to redevelop 508 stations over the next year and a half to bring them on par with global standards.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the redevelopment over videoconferencing on 6 August. The stations to be redeveloped include 55 each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, 49 in Bihar, 44 in Maharashtra, 37 in West Bengal, 34 in Madhya Pradesh, 32 in Assam, 25 in Odisha, 22 in Punjab, 21 each in Gujarat and Telangana, 20 in Jharkhand, 18 each in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, 15 in Haryana, and 13 in Karnataka.
This is the first time Railways will be taking up the redevelopment of a large number of stations at one go. The Railways’ zonal divisions will execute the redevelopment using funds allocated in the Budget.
“Improving passenger amenities is a major focus of our government. The Prime Minister is personally monitoring the progress of Railways from time to time. He has given excellent inputs on design of stations and he will be laying foundation stone for 508 stations,” minister of Railways Ashwani Vaishnaw said.
The PM had earlier laid the foundation stone for 30 stations being redeveloped under the ministry’s Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, work on which is at advanced stages. Under the scheme, the Railways plans to redevelop a total of 1,309 stations.
The Railways has set an internal target to complete the redevelopment work over the next two years. A model for commercial exploitation of the redeveloped area around stations will be framed later. The station redevelopment will not be done on a public-private partnership basis due to complexities involved in the work, Vaishnaw said.
Master plans are being prepared for the development of these stations as city centres, with proper integration of both sides of the city. This integrated approach is driven by the holistic vision of overall urban development of the city, centred around the railway station.
The redeveloped stations will have modern passenger amenities along with well-designed traffic circulation, inter-modal integration and signage to guide passengers. The design will be inspired by local culture and architecture.
