In a bid to decongest and manage the high footfall pouring in daily, New Delhi Railway station is likely to get a French makeover soon. A delegation of French Government and railway officials visited the Delhi Division of Northern Railways and surveyed the New Delhi Railway station on Thursday with the intent to collaborate with Indian railways to redevelop the railway station. If all goes well, the existing station might turn into multi-storey railway station having scope for commercial activities.
The railway station faces massive congestion as it operates close to 350 trains and witnesses a footfall of 5-6 lakh on daily basis. This results in heavy rush on platforms and panic situation leading to stampedes. During the festive season and summer rush, it leads to stampede-like situation like the one in May 2010 when two persons were killed in a stampede. Both entry/exit points to the railway stations, Paharganj and Ajmeri Gate, are fully saturated leaving no space for horizontal expansion of the railway station. Encroachment on Paharganj side has been done to such an extent that visitors have to jostle to park their vehicles.
On the lines of airports, the station may have separate terminals for arrival and departure. This will create more space for passenger amenities while the remaining portion can be leased out to business entities for commercial purposes. This includes retail outlets, eating joints, multiplex and private offices. This will be an additional source of revenue for the cash-strapped railways.
“The French delegation visited the Delhi Division of Northern Railways with an intent to carry out a collaboration between Indian railways and French counterparts to redevelop stations and high speed trains. They survey the New Delhi Railway Station and interacted with Delhi division with a positive feedback,” said Arun Arora, Divisional Railway Manager, Delhi Division of Northern Railway.
At present, the railways are exploring vertical expansion of the railway station while developing it into a world class facility. The station also operates premium Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains and hence caters to a large number of foreign tourists. With little availability of space, there are not enough executive lounges, waiting halls and cafeteria.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited France in the month of April2015 to strengthen the economic ties between the two countries. During the visit a pact was signed for cooperation between Indian Railways and French railways for this semi-high speed rail project. Under this, French National Railways had agreed to co-finance an execution study which will be the first step towards execution of the semi-high speed train project on the Delhi-Chandigarh route.
Arora said that there a paradigm shift in Indian Railways in form of accelerated technical upgradation; station redevelopment leveraging the expertise and experience of developed railway systems including SNCF in France.