The Union Ministry of Railways will develop eight stations in Chhattisgarh as ‘Model Stations’.
They are — Bilaspur, Durg, Raipur, Raigarh, Champa, Bhatapara, Tilda and Rajnandgaon, officials stated.
Overall in South East Central Railway (SECR) division –Bilaspur, Durg, Raipur, Raigarh, Gondia, Champa, Shahdol, Bhatapara, Tilda, Rajnandgaon and Chhindwara have been chosen to be developed as 'Model Stations'.
The ‘Model Station’ scheme was in vogue between June 1999 and November, 2008. A total of 594 stations were identified for development under Model Station Scheme.
Indian Railways have planned to offer ‘A-1’ and ‘A” category stations (about 400 in number) for redevelopment on ‘as is where is basis’ by inviting open bids from interested parties. Station re-development projects require close coordination with the State Government/local bodies in order to get necessary clearances such as mutation of land, change of land use, heritage clearance (if required), NOCs from local bodies etc. Union Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu has written letters to Chief Ministers of all States while requesting them to nominate coordinating officer in their respective States to facilitate these clearances. A few State Governments have nominated coordinating officers in this regard.
Station redevelopment projects are complex in nature and require detailed techno-economic feasibility studies and statutory clearances from local bodies. Therefore, no time frame can be indicated, at this stage.
Notably, SECR will be starting Mechanized Cleaning for Bhatapara, Tilda and Bhilai Power House Railway Stations in Chhattisgarh soon, officials stated.
It would also soon take up installation of Dual Display Information System (DDIS) at Passenger Reservation System (PRS) and Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) counters at important A1, A, & B Category stations over its Railway divisions. Notably, as many as five ongoing projects under SECR had been put in the priority list by Union Railway Ministry for fast tracking implementation of the projects.
Prioritisation of projects is a continuous exercise carried out on the basis of traffic and safety considerations and availability of funds, officials stated.
In addition to ongoing projects, 77 doubling / tripling / quadrupling projects having an aggregate length of 9,040 Km and total estimated cost of Rs 90,304 crore were included in the Railway Budget for 2015-16 to decongest existing saturated section and create additional carrying capacity.
Zone wise break up of fast track implementation of projects is as under:- Central Railway 6, East Coast Railway 8, East Central Railway 11, Eastern Railway 1, North Central Railway 4, North East Railway 4, Northeast Frontier Railway 2, Northern Railway 4, North Western Railway 2, South Central Railway 8, South East Central Railway 5, South Eastern Railway 5, Southern Railway 4, South Western Railway 3, West Central Railway 6 and Western Railway 4.
