Beautification work of rly stn to begin next month

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 10

The ambitious modernisation work of the local railway station with an initial investment of Rs 15.75 crore will start from next month. Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik, also a member of the parliamentary committee for the railways, said the civil work would commence from the next month and was likely to be completed by the fag end of the year.

The tender and work had been allotted to a private company. The infrastructure development and beautification cost pegged at Rs 13.75 crore has now been increased by Rs 2 crore to lay granite on the platform.

He said the objective was to raise the infrastructure of the railway station to match the airport standards.

Under the proposed plan, parking lots of the railway station would be revamped with separate arrival and departure lanes. Dedicated lane for three-wheelers and a multi-storey parking would be raised to realise optimum utilisation of space.

LED lighting, beautiful landscaping, road furniture with benches, solar studs, cat eye reflectors, thermo plastic line and CCTV cameras would be installed at the parking lot.

The Kota stone on the platforms would be replaced with granite. LCDs and other electronic gadgets would be installed for informing the arrival and departure of trains. Obsolete ticket booking office at the platform no. one would be demolished and replaced with a modern one.

The present parcel building would also be demolished to replace it with seven retiring rooms and a dormitory for the public. Retiring rooms would be refurbished at par with hotel rooms.

Malik asked officials to incorporate a disaster management plan in the scheme. He also sought planning to install two more escalators on the opposite side of the station as the platform no. one already has two of them. He directed the railway staff to interact with the public politely and courteously. He especially demanded these qualities with the staff deployed at the enquiry window.