E-Paper
PM to virtually lay foundation stone for redevelopment of Kanpur, Jhansi rly stations
As part of the project, ₹767 crore would be spent on redeveloping Kanpur Central station over the next three years.
Lucknow/Kanpur/Gorakhpur Prime Minister Narendra Modi would virtually lay the foundation stone for the redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the country under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme on Sunday. Among these would be 55 railway stations in Uttar Pradesh -- including Lucknow’s Badshahnagar, Kanpur Central, and Jhansi, among others.
The Amrit Bharat Yojana has been devised keeping in mind the need of upcoming 50 years. Under this scheme, the railway stations will be revamped and redeveloped as city centres with proper integration of population on all its sides. According to sources, it would be the biggest foundation laying ceremony to improve and modernise the railway infrastructure.
Various state government ministers, U.P. MPs, MLAs, the state president of BJP, and several others will participate in the event at various (55) locations of the state as PM Modi would lay the foundation stones and address the event.
As part of the project, ₹767 crore would be spent on redeveloping Kanpur Central station over the next three years, said Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyaya, the chief spokesperson for North Central Railways, adding that adequate space would be left to add two more platforms.
The notable feature of the project is that the Heritage Building on the Cantt side would not be affected during this project. The major changes would be made on the city side of Kanpur Central. The existing block of ticket counters would be shifted there to (possibly) create space for a third platform. At present, the central has 10 platforms, which host 350 trains every day.
In the next three years, apart from the state-of-the-art building, an entirely new road would be laid to station, a circulating area, waiting hall, and escalators would be added while the existing one would be improved. A three-star hotel, a shopping complex, and a multi-purpose parking is also proposed, along with direct connectivity to Metro from the Kanpur Central.
The redevelopment of Jhansi station has been planned with a budget of ₹477 crore aiming to provide international-level amenities. Divisional railway manager, Jhansi Deepak Sinha, said railway stations of Banda, Mahoba, Chitrakoot Dham, Lalitpur, Orai-Jalaun have also been included for redevelopment in the first phase. Babina, Bharua Sumerpur in Hamirpur, Kalpi, Mauranipur, Talbehat in Lalitpur, Eit, and Konch stations in Jalaun would be included in the second phase.
Significantly, Jhansi is one of most important rail transition points connecting North-Central India with South India. Around 200 trains cross through the route on a daily basis. Under the project, ₹18 crore has been allocated for Basti, ₹61 crore for Deoria, ₹41 crore for Balia, ₹34 crore for Azamgarh, ₹24 crore for Aishbagh, ₹31 crore for Badshahnagar, ₹31 crore for Sitapur, ₹21 crore for Farrukhabad, ₹24 crore for Lal Kuan, ₹33 crore for Kasganj, ₹60 crore for Varanasi city, and ₹63 crore for Banaras.
Separately, around ₹463.2 crore will be spent on the redevelopment of three stations in Kashi, said BJP regional president Dilip Singh Patel.
BJP state vice president Santosh Singh said that U.P. BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary will be present at the Lucknow’s Badshahnagar station during the event; Union minister Kaushal Kishore at the Utretia (Lucknow) station; Union minister and Amethi MP Smriti Irani at Amethi station; Mahendra Nath Pandey at Chandauli; Kanpur MP Satyadev Pachauri at the Kanpur Central, Mathura MP Hema Malini at Govardhan Provisional station, and Jhansi MP Anurag Sharma at Jhansi station.
