In a good news for travellers, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Indian Railways’ ₹10,000 crore proposal for the redevelopment of three major stations — New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT).
With the redevelopment, expected to be completed in 2.5 to 3.5 years, passengers will be able to enjoy facilities such as food court, waiting lounge, playing area for children, place to shop local products, proper illumination and lifts/escalators/travelators, among other facilities.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said a master plan had been prepared for the smooth movement of traffic with adequate parking facilities. The stations, which will make use of green building techniques with solar energy, water conservation/recycling and improved tree cover, will be integrated with other modes of transportation such as metro and bus.
“The stations will be safe with installation of CCTV and access control. There will be segregation of arrival/departures, clutter-free platforms, improved surfaces and fully covered platforms ... special care will be taken to provide Divyang-friendly facilities,” according to an official release.
Bonus for staff
Replying to a query, the Minister added that about 11.5 lakh railway employees would get their productivity-linked bonus by next week. It is expected that the bonus will be credited to the employees before the Dasara festival. In 2021, the Cabinet had approved a bonus equivalent to 78 days’ wages for railway employees with estimated financial implication of ₹1,984.73 crore.
Briefing the reporters, the Minister added that the government would be funding the redevelopment project so as to not put any extra monetary burden on passengers. “Railways caters to middle class and lower middle class so any extra burden on passengers is not good. So, it has been decided to invest the budget money in the Railways and take it up with investment from government. So, it is a conscious decision to not redevelop these stations in PPP mode,” he said.
Overall, the government is currently working on redevelopment of 199 stations, of which tenders have been issued for redevelopment of 47 stations. The work is underway on redevelopment of additional 32 stations. The overall cost for redevelopment of 199 stations is estimated to be about ₹60,000 crore.
The Minister added that the tenders for the re-development of the three stations would be issued in the next 10 days.
Operational challenges
The government has set a timeline of 3.5 years for the redevelopment of New Delhi railway station and 2.5 years for the Ahmedabad station and the CSMT Mumbai. “There will be operational challenges because the traffic at these three stations is very high. We need to make sure that these stations continue to service the traffic while the redevelopment is happening.”
The Minister, however, added that efforts would be made to complete the redevelopment in two years. “We will try to do this in two years. We will be using new technology for construction — modular construction. Once we are able to master this technology through implementation on these stations, it can be used in other projects as well in the country,” he said.
