Soon, Jammu Tawi railway station to be world class
Syed Ali Ahmed
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 8
Among 400 railway stations selected for redevelopment, the Railway Ministry has identified two stations in the northern area — Faridabad and Jammu Tawi.
They will be developed as world-class railway stations with clear demarcation of separate departure and arrival platforms, restaurants, shopping malls and other facilities for passengers. This was announced by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in a video conferencing programme.
He said the Railways would redevelop a total of 400 stations in a phased manner. In the first phase, 23 railway stations are being taken up. Of them, the Northern Railway will have two stations — Faridabad in Delhi division and Jammu Tawi in Ferozepur division.
The other stations are Bandra Terminus, Bangalore Cantonment, Bhopal, Borivali, Chennai Central, Howrah, Indore, Kamakhya, Kozhikode, Lokmanya Tilak (T), Mumbai Central (Main), Pune, Ranchi, Secunderabad, Thane, Udaipur City, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, and Yesvantpur, Habib Ganj and Gandhi Nagar.
The minister said the redeveloped stations would provide services to the passengers in line with world-class railway stations. The stations will be redeveloped through public-private-partnership mode without straining the finances of the Railways.
The stations will improve passenger experience by providing amenities like digital signage, escalators, self-ticketing counters, executive lounges, luggage screening machines, walkways, holding areas for passengers, grand and distinctive roofing and flooring and free and paid Wi-Fi. The programme will benefit over 100 cities and 16 million passengers per day.
The Railways has estimated the project cost of Rs 1 lakh crore. The programme will provide 2,200 acres of prime land to the private developers for a 45-year lease period.
To maximise commercial potential of the public assets, the Railways plans to bid out the projects through a transparent and competitive method, the minister added.
