Indian Railways massive plans have been brought to a screeching halt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PM has turned down Railway Minister Piyush Goyal's ambitious plans related to converting Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus into one of the first museum-cum-railway stations in India, and of introducing a new signalling system, based on the European Train Control System-Level 2, in entire network of Indian Railways. 
 
Citing sources, an Indian Express report indicated that the PM said no to the proposal, which would have cost around Rs 78,000 crore, when it came up at a meeting with the Railway Board on March 26. The Prime Minister reportedly raised the cost factor and the wisdom of rolling out en masse a technology that is untested for Indian conditions and is mainly commissioned in high-speed systems in some global railways. Further, the report said that Modi asked the Indian Railways to carry out extensive trials in a section with heavy traffic density first, and then take a call.
 
The Railway Minister, who is stated have been vocal in support of the idea, reportedly favoured giving the entire contract to one player so as to gain a price advantage on economies of scale. But the Finance Department of Railways had questioned the huge cost involved and its justification, as it reportedly would have cost at least 1.5 times more than the estimated.
 
Citing the source, present in the meeting, the report said the PM also told the Indian Railways “to explore indigenously developed technologies for such signal upgrade in the future”.
 
Similarly, the Prime Minister has also turned down Piyush Goyal's other plan to convert Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus into one of the first museum-cum-railway stations in India, said a PTI report.
 
The terminal, built over 10 years and starting in 1878, was designed on the late medieval Italian models. It was elevated to the status of a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2004. Goyal had announced to convert the busy terminal into a "world-class museum" during his visit there in November.
 
During a meeting attended by Goyal and senior Railway Board members on March 26, Prime Minister Modi reportedly questioned the logic behind such ambitious projects. The Railway Board was also not in favour of Goyal's museum proposal, which could displace a lot of employees and it would be difficult to accommodate them somewhere else. Various Indian Railways zones, too, had objected to it.
 
Modi is understood to have remarked on the lack of railway artefacts that could be showcased in the proposed museum, which, the sources said, were not enough. The bids for the Rs 250-million project was invited by Indian Railway's subsidiary RITES, which likely received response from top architectural conservation and building restoration firms. At least 13 companies have submitted expressions of interest to design the two floors of the terminal into a museum complex, the sources say.