Railways have decided to develop world class facilities at six stations -- New Delhi, Patna, Agra, Anand Vihar, Jaipur and Amritsar -- in the first phase of its modernisation drive.
While a total of 22 stations have been identified to be developed as world class, six stations have been chosen to be taken up in the first phase, a senior railway ministry official said.
"Based on the experiences gained, work on the other 16 stations will be taken up in phases. As a first step we are in a process of appointing architects and consultants to prepare a feasibility report and submit the final plan."
While Hong Kong-based firm Terry Farell has been appointed to carry out the study and submit the concept plan for modernisation of New Delhi railway station, a consultant for Patna station would be appointed shortly.
As per the parameters prepared by the ministry, the proposed world class stations would have a state-of-the-art station building with all modern passenger amenities like food plazas, currency exchange counters, hotels, retail outlets, ATM facilities.
It would have separate departure and arrival arenas to streamline passenger movements with proper connectivity to other transport modes, well illuminated circulating areas, adequate signages, inter-platform transfer through elevators and barrier free access for physically challenged persons.
Shri Prakash, general manager, Northern Railway, said the Hong Kong firm would prepare a concept plan taking into account the need for direct vehicular access to the concourse, walkways to facilitate passenger movements and stall-free platforms.
Besides areas around the station and the air space above platform would be commercially developed through joint ventures. The platform space would be increased by shifting the passenger services to the first floor concourse level.
Though demand for trains is increasing every year, existing metro city stations do not have space for future expansion.
At present, New Delhi station alone handles an average of 3.5 lakh passengers and 256 trains, including 78 suburban trains per day. "That is why new terminals have been planned for Delhi and other stations in major cities as part of the modernisation and expansion plan," said Prakash.
Since the world class station project is to be carried out on the basis of a public-private participation involving huge funds, the work on six stations taken up in the first phase would serve as a model for other 16 stations, including Bhopal, Mathura, Ahmedabad, Secunderabad, Chennai, Thiruvanathapuram, Gaya, Chandigarh, Bangalore and Howrah.
According to the senior ministry official, standardised bidding documents would be prepared for private developers. The selected developer would comply with the architectural design principles and provision of the mandatory operational infrastructure.