The Chandrapur and Ballarshah railway stations falling under the Nagpur division of Central Railways have been voted as the joint most beautiful stations in India, as informed by the official twitter account of the Central railway. These two stations outperformed 61 other entries from 11 zones in the country. All the entries contained artwork which has been done by local artisans.

As reported by PTI, these railway stations were beautified under the themes centred around the Tadoda National Park and local tribal themes. The second prize was shared between Bihar’s Madhubani railway station and Tamil Nadu’s Madurai. The third prize saw three winners namely the Gandhidham, Kota and Secunderabad railway stations.

This beautification initiative has been inculcated with the intention to beautify the railway stations. With local artists being employed for the said projects, the competition would have also generated healthy employment opportunities.

The winners were were awarded the prize money of Rs 10 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh for the first, second and third position respectively. The winners were chosen by a committee comprising of senior railway officials.

Below are a few pictures of Ballarshah and Chandrapur railways stations, adjusted as the most beautiful railway stations in the country:

The winning stations were also congratulated by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who gave credit to the forest department and Maharashtra’s forest minister for the same.

Here are a couple of pictures from the second placed Madurai:

We had reported in the past about the now second placed Madhubani railway station in Bihar. Here are a few pictures of the beautiful traditional art form, which was painted by as many as 200 Mithila painting artists, who took 15 days to complete their art:

Such a beautification project was also carried out for the suburban Mumbai railway stations of Borivali and Khar, besides the Titwala Railway station near Mumbai.