india

Updated: Mar 11, 2018 07:37 IST

You may soon have selfie points at railway stations as the Railway has invited proposals to improve facilities at 70 stations across the country by December 2018. Better lit stations with provision of lifts and escalators and improvement of circulating areas outside the station are some of the other facilities that will be improved at the railway stations.

While Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC), is redeveloping over 600 stations with the help of private parties, Indian railway has separately started work for improvements at 70 stations. Some of the stations that Indian Railway has suggested include Lonawala in Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Jaipur, Delhi and Mysore among others.

“It has been Railway’s endeavour to redevelop railway stations to provide an enhanced and richer experience to the passenger. About 600 stations have been identified for this purpose across Indian Railways, which will be assigned to IRSDC shortly. However, as a parallel measure, it has been decided to develop about 70 stations through zonal railways separately,” Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani has said in a letter to General Managers of various zones.

In the 2018-19 budget passenger amenities such as provision of FOB, lift and escalators and boundary wall for security has been proposed.

The divisional railway managers (DRMs) have been asked to appoint architectural consultant to prepare plan for the station.

“These works on the identified stations should be completed by December 2018. The work should include improvement in façade of the station building. Circulating area should also be redeveloped to provide well regulated lanes for pick up/drop and parking. Suitably located steel dustbins shall be provided ensuring garbage pickup and disposal system,” said another Railway official.

The letter also mentions having LED lighting to brighten up all areas, charging points, selfie and meeting points and modular catering kiosks.

Railway has also decided to allow residential and other commercial structure be it hotel or hospital on the railway land near the station. Railway will give the land for the lease of 99 years and the private party will be allowed to exploit it for commercial purpose. This will be done at 600 stations, which IRSDC will be developing.

To start with, five stations – Anand Vihar, Chandigarh, Pune, Secunderbad and Bangalore – have been identified and initially private parties will only be allowed to facility management such as cleanliness, selling of platform tickets and managing the parking.