Railway Ministry Launches First Phase of the Station Redevelopment Program

Railway Ministry Launches First Phase of the Station Redevelopment Program

The Ministry of Railways launched the first phase of Station Redevelopment Programme on February 8, 2017 for commercial development of 23 stations across India. The total outlay (व्यय) of the project in the first phase is expected to be worth Rs 9,000 crore. The 23 stations in the first phase of

redevelopment includes Chennai Central, Ranchi, Udaipur, Indore, Yesvantpur, Bangalore Cantonment, Visakhapatnam, Howrah, Kamakhya, Faridabad, Jammu Tawi, Secunderabad, Vijayawada, Kozhikode and Bhopal.

Under the Station Redevelopment Programme, the Railway will take up 400 A1 and A stations for redevelopment through public private partnership (PPP) at an estimated (अनुमान) cost of Rs 1 lakh crore.  besides, the Railway Ministry is also trying to partner with the Ministry of Urban Development to develop smart stations in identified smart cities. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu informed that several pension funds((सेवा निवर्तन कोष) , investors, international organisations like World Bank along with various state governments are also involved in the project.  The redeveloped (पुनर्विकसित) stations will provide amenities like digital signage, escalators(चलती सीढ़ी) , self-ticketing counters, executive lounges(बैठक), restaurants, malls, theaters and Wi-Fi facility.