Ministry of Railways plans to upgrade 90 stations showcasing local culture/history
In an attempt to increase passenger amenities and to give an aesthetic makeover to the most visited stations across Indian Railways, Ministry of Railways has formulated the plan to redevelop 90 stations across Indian Railways. The redevelopment plan of 90 stations is assigned to different zones/nodal agencies. Given that some stations are important pilgrimage hubs and report over 45,000 footfalls per day, Indian Railways would strive to ensure that passenger’s get best services at the stations even during peak seasons.
It may be noted that Indian Railways is in the process of redevelopment of more than 600 stations. While doing this, efforts would be made to showcase local culture or history to reflect in the station façade. “For instance Aurangabad station is to be developed on lines of Ajantha or Ellora, Agra station is to be developed on lines of Taj Mahal, Ujjain station is to be developed on lines of Mahakaleshwar temples, Nagpur station to have a big orange in the premises. Since Belgaum has history of Mahatma Gandhi visiting there, Belgaum station to have a big Charkha at the front,” the ministry said in a statement.
Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) is keeping elements of local heritage in facade/redevelopment of station buildings. For instance in Charbagh (Lucknow) elements of existing heritage building are incorporated in second entry NE Rly station, similarly in Gomti Nagar, elements of Awadh culture with Jali wok has been incorporated, in Triputi station, Lord Tirumala temple design has been incorporated, in Pondicherry, French colonial architectural elements are provided. Similar action will be taken for Goa, Kota, Nellore and Ernakulam stations.
List of stations:
- Tirupati, Nellore, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Guntakal, Kurnool City, and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh
- Guwahati, New Tinsukia, and Rangiya in Assam
- Patna, Bapudham Motihari, Hajipur, Patliputra and Sonpur in Bihar
- Chandigarh, Bilaspur, Raipur and Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh
- Safdarjung, Anand Vihar, Bijwasan, Delhi Main and Sarai Rohilla in Delhi
- Madgaon in Goa
- Gandhinagar, Surat, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodra, Bhavnagar City and Valsad in Gujarat
- Ambala in Haryana
- Shimla in Himachal Pradesh
- Jammu Tavi in Jammu & Kashmir
- Ranchi and Barkakana in Jharkhand
- Yeshwantpur, Mysuru and Dharwad in Karnataka
- Ernakulam Jn, Kozhikode, Kottayam and Palakkad in Kerala
- Habibganj, Jabalpur, Bhopal, Itarsi, Ratlam, and Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh
- Shivaji Nagar, Lonawala, Sholapur, Igatpuri, Wardha and Pune in Maharashtra
- Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Sambalpur and Jharsuguda in Odisha
- Puduchery in Puduchery
- Kota, Jaipur, Udaipur, Bikaner and Jodhpur in Rajasthan
- Madurai, Chennai Egmore, Tiruchchirappalli and Salem in Tamil Nadu
- Warangal in Telangana
- Mughalsarai, Gomtinagar, Lucknow, Allahabad, Jhansi, Mathura, Varanasi City, Varanasi Jn, Ayodhya, Izzatnagar, Gorakhpur, Dehradun and Haridwar in Uttarakhand
- Asansol, Howrah, Sealdah, Darjeeling, Alipurduar and Adra in West Bengal