NEW DELHI: In an attempt to provide the best of facilities and services to the passengers and visitors, the Railways has drawn up a massive modernisation plan to upgrade to world class standards railway stations at four metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Howrah and Chennai — and over a dozen major cities.

The stations at Lucknow, Patna, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Secunderabad, Pune, Thiruvananthpuram, Bhopal, Jaipur, Bhubaneshwar and Amritsar are also in for a major facelift during the current year, according to a senior Railway Ministry official.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has directed officials to complete the works as far as possible through public-private partnership by inviting open tenders in a transparent manner. The services to be provided at the selected stations would be of world-class standards.

The plan envisages arrangements for arrival and departure of passengers on different floors in a manner that will avoid overcrowding. Fully air-conditioned waiting rooms, restrooms, multi-level underground parking, shopping malls, multiplexes, food plaza and other such services would be made available at these stations according to the need-based assessment of the region, the official said.

The Railways has already put in place a plan to install Auto Teller Machines (ATMs) at a majority of its more than 7,000 stations and has entered into a tie-up with nationalised banks. Now Expression of Interest (EoI) has been invited from private banks to install ATMs at stations across the country so that people are able to get access to monetary transactions even when they are on the move, the official said.

The Railways has also proposed to set up a supply chain for agricultural produce, including fruits and vegetables, and provide facilities for their sale by farmers at outlets near the stations. Seeds of developed varieties, fertilizers and other inputs will also be made available. It is considering providing vacant railway land in large cities for development of the supply chain infrastructure. All these projects would be taken up under the pubic-private partnership schemes and private parties would be invited to run refrigerated container trains under the new container policy.

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