Mamata admits stations a flop
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Announced with much fanfare last year, the railways much vaunted project to develop some railways stations in the country as “world-class” stations have failed to take off. However, railway minister Mamata Banerjee was honest enough to admit as much in her Budget speech in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
As part of the Railways bid to improve passenger amenities, Ms Banerjee also announced the introduction of the “Go India” smart card which will be taken up as a pilot project. She said that the card will be a “single-window package” allowing passengers to pay for long distance, suburban, Metro, etc. journeys.
As for world-class stations, she told the House, “Not much headway could be achieved because of their high costs.” She said: “We are taking a relook at the parameters and guidelines to provide what will suit Indian passengers best. This work will definitely be taken up in the coming year.” She later said the bids received for consultancy on this ambitious project were very expensive, hence the delay. As for the 160 multi-function complexes that several stations across the country were to be converted into, she said while some have been completed, some others are in the process of completion. She also announced a long list of other stations that will be made MFCs and which will also have budget hotels.
She announced another long list of 236 stations that will be converted into Adarsh stations. This scheme too had been announced by Ms Banerjee in last year’s Rail Budget.
The Railways will extend Rail Yatri Sewaks to help out passengers with trolleys at Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram.
Apart from this, she also said that a new super-class AC class of travel will be introduced.
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More mechanised laundries soon
AGE CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi
Feb. 25: In an apparent bid to improve the quality of linen in trains, railway minister Mamata Banerjee has proposed to set up more mechanised laundries at many places. She said, “I propose to set up more mechanised laundries for improving the quality of linens in trains at Nagpur, Chandigarh and Bhopal, in addition to Wadibunder, Tikiya Para, Kamakhya, Secunderabad, Kacheguda, Indore, Lucknow, Banaras, Samastipur, Sealdah, Tatanagar, Danapur, Bikaner, Bilaspur, Durg, Hatia, Chennai, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, where they are commissioned or are being set up.”
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