Prime Minister Narendra Modi would in a single day next week lay the foundation stones for redevelopment of around 500 railway stations. These stations will be redeveloped under the ‘Amrit Bharat Station Scheme”, entailing an investment of nearly Rs 20,000 crore.
Some of the stations for which the PM will lay the foundation stone include Prayagraj, Vijaynagaram, Delhi Cantonment, Narela (Delhi) and Aurangabad.
Officials said considering the scale of the projects and their spread across the country, the railway ministry will hold simultaneous events at all the 500 locations. They added one of the major focus will be on holding different competitions among school students. The railways estimates the students’ participation to cross two lakh on that day.
The Amrit Bharat Station Scheme involves preparation of master plans and their implementation in phases to improve the amenities at the stations like improvement of station access, circulating areas, waiting halls, toilets, lift and escalators besides cleanliness, free wifi, kiosks for local products under the ‘One Station One Product” scheme.
The massive station redevelopment programme also envisages improvement of building, integrating the station with both sides of the city, multimodal integration and environment friendly solutions.
So far, 1,309 railway stations have been identified under this scheme including 83 in Rajasthan, 87 in Gujarat, 80 in Madhya Pradesh and 34 in Haryana.
