NEW DELHI (Metro Rail News): With today’s inauguration of India’s first redeveloped railway station at Gandhinagar by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian Railways will take a giant step to transform and redevelop 125 railway stations across India into world-class 24 hour transit hubs with airport like feeling and modern facilities to the people of India.
This gigantic mission of railway stations redevelopment Indian Railways is spearheaded by Indian Railways Station Development Corporation (IRSDC). IRSDC is a Joint Venture company of Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) and Ircon International Limited (IRCON). As a nodal agency, IRSDC is at the core of Indian Railway’s mission of transforming the country’s railway stations into world-class 24-hour transit hubs.
As per the press release of the Ministry of Railways, the redeveloped Gandhi Nagar Railway Station is first of its kind project in India and will pave the way for similar development in land stressed cities like Mumbai and Bangalore. As a part of this mission, work on the redevelopment of 125 stations is in progress.
Out of this, IRSDC is working on 63 stations, and RLDA is working on 60 stations with two stations being taken up by zonal railways. The total investment for the redevelopment of 123 stations along with real estate development is more than INR 50,000 Crores.
Station redevelopment is a priority area for Ministry of Railways. The redevelopment project at present is implemented at Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Habibganj Bhopal and SMVT at Bengaluru and under progress at Ayodhya, Bijwasan (Delhi), Gomtinagar (Lucknow), Delhi Safdurjung and Ajni (Nagpur).
Salient Features of newly developed Gandhinagar Capital Railway Station includes –
- Spacious Entrance Lobby with Ticketing facility State of the Art External Façade & landscaping Theme-based Lighting Dedicated Exclusive Art Gallery with live LED Wall Display Lounge Centralized AC multipurpose waiting lounge Escalators & Lifts and Facilities for Divyangjans
- Inter-Faith Prayer Hall, Air conditioned Baby Feeding Room etc.
- Waiting Hall at platforms for around 500 passengersPlatforms well connected with Sub-ways, adequate parking facilities.
The station is future-ready and the concourse will be used for departing passengers when the passenger numbers increase at the station. However, in the near future, it is planned to open retail, food and entertainment outlets in this area to serve the demands of the passengers as well as the local population.
Market players such as Big Bazaar and Shopper’s Stop have also shown interest in opening their mini outlets making it convenient for the passengers and local population to shop at the station. The redeveloped station will function like a “city centre rail mall” where travel will be one of the several functions that it will serve.
Without the concourse, the redeveloped station has been designed to handle 1,500 passengers in peak hour. With the concourse, the capacity will go up to 2,200 passengers in the peak hour.
