New Delhi: Now Railways is going to take another big step for the convenience of passengers. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has approved the plan to develop ‘passenger holding areas’ at major railway stations across the country on the lines of New Delhi Railway Station. The holding area created on an experimental basis during the Diwali and Chhath festivals last year at New Delhi Railway Station has become very popular among the passengers. This provided a lot of convenience to the passengers in orderly stay in the station premises and crowd management.
Keeping this success in mind, now Railways has announced to develop similar modern holding areas at 76 major railway stations across the country. All these projects will be completed before the festive season 2026, so that passengers do not face any inconvenience during big festivals like Diwali and Chhath next year.
Northern Railway includes 12 stations: 12 major stations under Northern Railway have been included in this scheme. These include Anand Vihar Terminal, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi Junction, Ghaziabad, Jammu Tawi, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Varanasi, Ayodhya Dham and Haridwar. Chief Public Relations Officer of Northern Railway, Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay said that the holding area built for passengers last year at New Delhi station had facilities like seating, drinking water, mobile charging, washroom etc. Considering these facilities, now this model will be adopted at other stations also.
76 stations across the country, where holding areas will be built-
1. Central Railway (6 stations)
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Nagpur, Nashik Road, Pune and Dadar.
2. Eastern Railway (5 stations)
Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol, Bhagalpur and Jasidih.
3. East Central Railway (6 stations)
Patna, Danapur, Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Darbhanga and Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay Junction.
4. East Coast Railway (3 stations)
Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam and Puri stations.
5. Northern Railway (12 stations)
Anand Vihar Terminal, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi Jn, Ghaziabad, Jammu Tawi, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra, Ludhiana, Lucknow (NR), Varanasi, Ayodhya Dham and Haridwar stations.
]6. North Central Railway (4 stations)
Kanpur, Veerangana Laxmibai (Jhansi), Mathura and Agra Cantt stations.
7. North Eastern Railway (4 stations)
Gorakhpur, Banaras, Chhapra and Lucknow Junction.
8. North East Frontier Railway (2 stations)
Guwahati and Katihar stations.
9. North Western Railway (5 stations)
Jaipur, Gandhi Nagar Jaipur, Ajmer, Jodhpur and Ringas station.
10. Southern Railway (4 stations)
M.G.R. Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, Coimbatore and Ernakulam stations.
11. South Central Railway (6 stations)
Secunderabad, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Guntur, Kachiguda and Rajahmundry.
12. South Eastern Railway (3 stations)
Ranchi, Tatanagar and Shalimar.
13. South East Central Railway (1 station)
Raipur
14. South Western Railway (4 stations)
S.M.V.T. Bengaluru, Yesvantpur, Mysore and Krishnarajapuram.
15. Western Railway (8 stations)
Mumbai Central, Bandra Terminus, Udhna, Surat, Ahmedabad, Ujjain, Vadodara and Sehore stations.
16. West Central Railway (3 stations)
Bhopal, Jabalpur and Kota stations.