NEW DELHI: With the three main railway stations in the Capital -- New Delhi, Old Delhi and Nizamuddin -- literally crumbling under pressure from the growing number of passengers every year, Northern Railway has initiated plans to add at least three new mega terminus to the city's railway infrastructure to decongest the existing stations.

While work on the Rs.85-crore mega terminus at Anand Vihar in East Delhi is going on in full swing -- it is likely to become operational by 2008, Northern Railway hopes to add three mega stations at Bijwasan near sub-city Dwarka in South-West Delhi, Shakur Basti in North West-Delhi and Holambi Kalan in North Delhi.

"Bijwasan station will cater to the needs of lakhs of people living in Dwarka and neighbouring Gurgaon as these places are poorly connected with the railway network. Similarly, the terminus at Shakur Basti and Holambi Kalan will serve people of Rohini, Pitampura and other nearby areas, besides meeting the needs of the upcoming townships at Narela and Bawana," said Rajiv Saxena, Northern Railway's Chief Public Relations Officer.

According to Mr. Saxena, passenger traffic at Delhi's railway stations is increasing by about 10 per cent every year. More than five-lakh passengers visit New Delhi station daily during the festive season and the annual summer break, while on normal days this figure touches three-lakh, and at Old Delhi and Nizamuddin stations it is well over a lakh everyday, he said, adding: "With such tremendous pressure, decongesting of stations is our top priority."

Stating that if everything went as per plans, the three stations will be ready before the Commonwealth Games in 2010, Mr. Saxena said land acquisition for such huge projects is being worked out.

"For Sakur Basti station, we already have enough land in our possession, while we have already identified land for Holambi Kalan and Bijwasan stations. Efforts are on to acquire the land for which we have already earmarked Rs.80 crores and Rs.40 crores respectively," he informed.

Stating that all these stations will be have state-of-the-art facilities, Mr. Saxena said one of its major advantages would be its connectivity with upcoming Delhi Metro sections. "All these mega terminus will be very close to upcoming Metro sections, therefore people will have no problem accessing new railway stations from anywhere in the city. All these efforts will help in decongesting the three existing main stations," he added.

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