Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate 103 stations, including Bikaner’s Deshnoke located nearly 200 km from the International Border with Pakistan, which have been redeveloped under the Railways’ ambitious Amrit Bharat Station Scheme in Bikaner on May 22 virtually, a senior Railways official told The Indian Express.
Of the, 19 are in UP, 18 in Gujarat, five in Chhattisgarh, two in Bihar, three in Jharkhand, five in Karnataka, two in Kerala, six in Madhya Pradesh, 15 in Maharashtra, eight in Rajasthan, nine in , three in Telangana and West Bengal each, the official said.
One station each in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Puducherry, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh has also been redeveloped.
Some of the launched in 2022 aimed at transforming 1,337 stations into “city centres”, includes Rajasthan’s Deshnoke & Mandalgarh, Gujarat’s Dakor & Morbi, UP’s Saharanpur junction & Govardhan station, Telangana’s Begumpet, Bihar’s Thawe junction, MP’s Shajapur, Tamil Nadu’s Srirangam, and Karnataka’s Dharwad.
“These are medium-size stations, but they will become one of the key centres for development of small cities. The cost of redeveloping each of the stations ranges between `5 crore and `30 crore each,” the official said.
These stations are equipped with modern toilets, lifts, escalators, free Wi-Fi, improved passenger information system, waiting areas, executive lounges, bigger circulating area and grand porch, the official added. The building design is based on local culture and heritage.
Earlier, under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, six stations were redeveloped — MP’s Rani Kamlapati station, Gujarat’s Capital station, Karnataka’s Sir M V Terminal Station, UP’s Ayodhya Dham Railway station and the first phase of Gomti Nagar Railway station, and the second entry of Odisha’s Cuttack Railway station.
The project envisions airport-like facilities such as executive lounges and business centres, food plazas and retail shops, and free WiFi, peppered with local art and culture, to come up at these select railway stations, and is estimated to cost Rs 1 lakh crore for all 1,337 stations.
According to officials, most stations are being redeveloped through the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) model, meaning a contractor handles a project from start to finish. However, 20 projects — such as at , junction, Vijayawada, and Central — are being implemented in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
According to data from the ministry, around `8,000 crore was spent under the head of “customer amenities” — a category under which the scheme comes — for 2023-24. The expected expenditure target for the last financial year 2024-25 was `12,992 crore while over `12,000 crore has been allocated for FY 2025-26.
Of the 1,337 identified stations, Uttar Pradesh has the highest (157), followed by Maharashtra (132) and West Bengal (101).
Meanwhile, upgrading of 80 key stations such as New Delhi, Gurugram, Ranchi Junction, Prayagraj Junction, Khajuraho, , Jaipur Junction, Tawi, (Charbagh), Sabarmati, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai Egmore, New Jalpaiguri, Imphal, Bhubaneswar, Cantt, and are being monitored under PM Gati Shakti — the national master plan for multi-modal connectivity.
