For now, it may sound like a distant dream. But imagine a squeaky-clean railway station, with comfy chairs in a sprawling hall for passengers while they wait to board their trains. Shops tidily lined across the hall where one can pop in to while away time and escalators to help ease the walk to the train. And, of course, none of the hustle
and jostle, the norm in many Indian stations, with arriving and departing passengers neatly segregated. A fanciful pipe dream, you would say. Well, if metropolitan cities can get swanky new airport terminals, why should the railways be left behind? Indian Railways has hired international consultants to work out “master plans” for converting the Delhi, Mumbai and Patna stations to “world-class” standards.
Tenders have also been issued to appoint consultants for similar master plans for the Howrah and Chennai stations, said a senior railway official. The move to elevate these five stations to global standards is part of the railways’ ambitious plan to convert 50 stations across India to world-class levels. Among other stations identified for this make-over are the ones in Pune, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Varanasi, Amritsar, Kanpur, Guwahati, Jaipur, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Secu-nderabad, Tirupati, Bangalore city, Baiyapanahali (Bengaluru), Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Habibganj, Gaya Junction, Agra, New Jalpaiguri, Majerhat, Mangalore, Ajmer and Puri.
A senior railway official said, “We will be building stations keeping in mind Indian passengers and their needs. There is no doubt that our railway stations need a face-lift because the passengers’ expectations have increased given the improved standards of living.”
The official added, “We also want to ensure that all passengers, including the poor, feel at home in these stations. So even though these 50 stations may offer far better facilities than the existing ones, the railways has no plans to levy any kind of user-charge on its passengers. There will be no tax similar to the toll tax or airport tax.”
Since this kind of a gargantuan project will require huge amounts of money, public-private partnership is expected to be the mode to fund it. The railways hopes to raise money for these stations by leveraging the real estate in and around the stations by asking private parties to develop railway land in and around the stations for commercial use.