The Hindu : New Delhi News : New Delhi railway station to get a facelift

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 20, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

New Delhi railway station to get a facelift

Four more platforms and many state-of-the-art facilities on the anvil

NEW DELHI: The busiest railway station in the country is in for a major facelift.

The New Delhi railway station, which receives three lakh passengers a day, will soon get a new look and become more passenger-friendly with its main new building getting ready along with four more platforms and several state-of-the-art facilities.

"It is the busiest station, but we want to covert it into the most convenient one too," Delhi DRM, PK Goel, said. To avoid confusion, the new building, being constructed at the Ajmeri Gate side of the station, will have separate floors for arrival and departure of passengers.

Passengers arriving at the station will land on the ground floor and those departing will enter through the first floor.

Eventually, the building at the Pahar Ganj side will be connected to the new building through an over bridge.

Any information about the arrival and departure of trains and reservation status will be easily accessible with touch screens being installed at all the platforms.

The number of reservation counters is also being increased.

Display boards

Moreover, all the foot overbridges (FOBs) and their entrances will have display boards to save the passengers from the inconvenience of traversing up to the main station lobby for obtaining train information.

One more foot overbridge is being constructed at the Ajmeri gate side in continuation of the one at the exit of the Delhi Metro station to facilitate passengers to cross over to the Metro Railway station or return. This bridge will be disabled-friendly.

In reply to a question, Mr Goel said the space for constructing four additional platforms will be provided by shifting the washing line to the Lahori Gate.

Special attention would be paid to maintaining cleanliness at the station. For this, a wholly mechanised cleaning system has been put in place.

There are plans to construct state of the art toilets at platforms with a nominal charge for their use.

A new multi-level parking is also being planned for the station to be operated on BOT basis.

However, this plan is at presently at the conceptual level, Mr Goel said.- UNI

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