A smart way to decongest other railway stations

The Anand Vihar mega-terminal will usher in a lot of firsts for railway services in the National Capital Region.

The Anand Vihar mega-terminal will usher in a lot of firsts for railway services in the National Capital Region.

HT Image

This is Delhi’s first terminal station in the trans-Yamuna area. It is also a first in several stations services.

This will be integrated with metro services and the inter-state bus terminal — both of which are adjacent to the station. A pedestrian crossing bridge is supposed to be built between the station building and the Metro station.

This station will finally decongests the other three terminal stations — New Delhi, Old Delhi and Nizamuddin.

“The importance of a mega terminal station is that it is equipped to handle rush comfortably and host long-distance trains,” said a senior northern railway official.

The original Anand Vihar station en route New Delhi is a roadside, local-train station. The new station is completely independent of the old small station.

But Phase-II of the Anand Vihar makeover involves linking of the two.

“But since the new one is a mega terminal station for mail/express trains, the link with the old one will not have much impact,” he said.

This is also one of the few chosen ones, which are supposed to be developed into World Class station — on the lines of an international airport. But even now, the swanky station building is no less.

It has separate arrival and departure areas for minimum congestion. Its maintenance areas are located in a way that several essential services required for readying a long-distance train — loading of catering equipment, linens, loading of water in the toilets, etc., — will be done there, before trains roll onto the platforms for departure.

“The idea was to learn from the common mistakes of the other stations,” said the official.