Ghaziabad Railway Station Redevelopment: Indian Railways to spend Rs 550 crore for revamp | PHOTOS

Ghaziabad Railway Station Redevelopment: Indian Railways has been undertaking several measures to redevelop several railway stations across the country. In this series, it has now decided to redevelop Ghaziabad Railway Station. The Railway Ministry has shared some pictures of the proposed design of the station on its Twitter handle. 

According to the information available, Ghaziabad Railway Station will be redeveloped at the cost of Rs 550 crore. Multiple changes will be done across the campus to make it modern. 

"Imbuing Modern Outlook: The proposed design of the to-be redeveloped Ghaziabad Railway Station in Uttar Pradesh," the ministry said while sharing the image. 

Images shared by the ministry show that the new building of the Ghaziabad railway station will be magnificent. Amenities like a roomy Roof Plaza, a food court, a waiting area, a play area for kids, a space reserved for local goods, etc will be provided under this redevelopment process. The new building will be of three storeys. There will also be separate seating arrangements for the officers and employees.

Special care will be taken to make the station's infrastructure, as well as facilities, friendly for differently-abled persons. Also, green building techniques will be used throughout the development of the station.

For passengers, a big restroom with steel benches will be made available. 

Meanwhile, the Railways has seen an almost 24 per cent dip in the number of senior citizens travelling by trains in 2021-22 as compared to 2019-2020. According to an RTI query, the total revenue from senior citizen travellers during 2018-2019 was Rs 2,920 crore, Rs 3,010 crore in 2019-2020, Rs 875 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 2,598 crore in 2021-22.

Officials said this dip can be attributed to the second wave of COVID-19, when fewer people were travelling by trains. This was also the time the Railways withdrew concessions for senior citizens, they said.

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In 2018-2019, 7.1 crore senior citizens travelled by trains, while in 2019-20, the number rose to 7.2 crore. In the pandemic-hit 2020-21, only around 1.9 crore citizens aged above 60 years travelled by train. However, in 2021-22, about 5.5 crore used the Railways.

With PTI Inputs