Country's railway stations into three categories — gold, silver and bronze.

Country's railway stations into three categories — gold, silver and bronze.

Makeover to turn Old Delhi station into ‘gold’

New Delhi: The Old Delhi railway station is set to don a new look. The railways has set a six-month timeline for the redevelopment of the station, right from renovating the entrance and redesigning the waiting halls to installing digital train time-table screens.

The revamp will come at a cost of about Rs 15 crore.

Senior railway officials said the station would soon come in the "gold" category. Apart from Old Delhi, the railway ministry has selected three stations — Gorakhpur, Gwalior, and Jaipur — for redevelopment under Phase-I. An official in the railway ministry said it was a decided to categorise the country's railway stations into three categories — gold, silver and bronze.

A railway official told TOI: "The gold category will have the top-notch stations with the best-in-class passenger amenities. These will be followed by silver- and bronze -category stations." In the capital, while the New Delhi and Anand Vihar stations will come under the gold ategory, Nizamuddin will be silver class. "The Old Delhi station, which was in the bronze category, will be upgraded to gold," said the official.

Arun Arora, divisional railway manager (Delhi Division), said the facelift would bring the Delhi Junction station on a par with other world-class stations. "The infrastructure would be similar to that of any major airport. Latest technological changes will be incorporated to best serve the passengers," he said.

"The work is being carried out under the pro-bono architectural guidance of a Chandigarh-based firm, EDGE, and Tata Elxsi."

RailTel will assist with putting up digital info display screens for real-time train running status and other information.

Even though the station has a daily footfall of 2 lakh, Arora said the renovation work wouldn't hamper passenger and train movement.

"The work is being planned very systematically. Each section of the project has been assigned a deadline and its progress is being monitored directly by the minister's office through BCG consultants," he said.

Source:TOI