Modernisation work of railway station starts

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 22

The ambitious modernisation work of the local railway station with an initial investment of Rs 15.75 crore has commenced.

First, the civil work for installing lifts has started. As many as five lifts on as many platforms are going to be installed.

The infrastructure development and beautification cost, pegged at Rs 13.75 crore, has now been increased by Rs 2 crore to lay granite on the platform.

Under the proposed plan, parking lots of the railway station would be revamped with separate arrival and departure lanes. Dedicated lane for three-wheelers and a multi-storey parking would be raised to realise optimum utilisation of space.

Besides, LED lighting, beautiful landscaping, road furniture with benches, solar studs, cat eye reflectors, thermo plastic line and CCTV cameras would be installed at the parking lot.

The Kota stone on the platforms would be replaced with granite. LCDs and other electronic gadgets would be installed for informing the arrival and departure of trains. The ramshackle ticket-booking office at platform no. one would be demolished and replaced with a modern one.

The present parcel building would also be demolished to replace it with seven retiring rooms and a dormitory for the public. Retiring rooms would be refurbished at par with hotel rooms.

Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik, who is also a member of the parliamentary committee for the railways, asked railway officials to incorporate a disaster management plan in the scheme. He also sought planning to instal two more escalators on the opposite side of the station as the platform no. one already has two of them. He directed the railway staff to interact with the public politely and courteously. He especially demanded these qualities with the staff deployed at the enquiry window.

He anticipated that all development works was likely to be completed by the fag end of the year.

He said the objective was to raise the infrastructure of the railway station to match the airport standards.