By IANS,
New Delhi : Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday unveiled a massive plan to revamp railway stations in the country, saying that 50 stations in large cities would get world class facilities, while 50 more would have multi-functional complexes.
Presenting her ministry’s budget for the current fiscal in the Lok Sabha, Banerjee said: “The world class facilities in the 50 stations will be developed through innovative financing and under public private partnership mode.”
Some of these stations are: CST Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Howrah, Sealdah, Bhubaneswar, New Delhi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Amritsar, Kanpur, Guwahati, Jaipur and Chennai Central.
The multi-functional complexes will be developed in “fifty such railway stations in places of pilgrimage, industry and tourist interest,” Banerjee said. They will have shopping centres, food stalls, restaurants, book shops, telephone and fax booths, medicine and variety stores and budget hotels as well as underground parking.
State-run IRCON and Rail Land Development Authority will develop these complexes.
Some of the stations where the complexes will come up are Alipurduar, Allahabad, Banspani, Bikaner, Bilaspur, Cuttack, Darjeeling, Dehradun, Ernakulum, Gandhidham and Gwalior.
The minister also proposed to develop 375 “Adarsh stations”, which would have better basic facilities such as drinking water, adequate toilets, catering services and waiting rooms.
“These stations will also have dormitories especially for lady passengers and other basic facilities,” Banerjee said.
Out of the 375, the railways has already identified 309 stations for the Adarsh station project.
Banerjee added that the railways would extend a helping hand to physically challenged and senior citizens.
“The Indian railways will extend a helping hand to the persons with physical disabilities and old age people. Standard ramps, earmarked parking lots, specially designed coaches in each mail and express train, lifts and escalators would be provided in a phased manner,” she said.