RailEnquiry

Chandigarh:
For the facelifting of the Chandigarh railway station, the authorities have chalked out blueprints of all the major projects, to be executed after getting approval from the Ministry of Railways. Sources said the division had also earmarked land on the station premises for setting up a multi-functional complex, state-of-art-the kitchen and new booking counters.An official said the departments concerned have surveyed the sites for the respective projects, but the higher authorities are yet to give the green signal. As per the blueprints, the authorities have proposed that the multi-functional complex will have a food court on the top floor, while rest of the floors will be utilised for the parking of vehicles. For the first time, a multi-level parking has been proposed at a railway station in India.During an inspection of the railway station, former Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had directed the officials to work out the feasibility of having a multi-level parking at the station, as there was a shortage of space and the number of trains was also set to increase leading to traffic chaos in the existing parking lot. Railway divisional manager, Ambala, PK Sanghi said a 2000 square metre area was proposed for the multi-level parking at the station. After getting the approval from the Ministry, the work will commence on a war footing.

Another proposal, for which the authorities have chalked out a plan, is the state-of-the-art kitchen. An area of around 25 square feet has been earmarked for this purpose at the station.

Sanghi said recently the Ministry of Railways had decided that pantry cars in trains would no longer be used for preparing food, and instead they will be used for storing meals and snacks prepared in base kitchens. Only hot beverages such as tea, coffee and soup will be prepared in the pantry cars, the he said. As per the plan, the base kitchens will be set up on a Railways land near the stations.

The divisional manager said officials were working on the project, but they were still to submit the report for the approval.

Sanghi said the Ministry had decided to give land at a nominal rate of Re 1 per sq feet to caterers for setting up base kitchens near the stations. Other proposals in pipeline include the shifting of ticket booking counter, setting up of air-conditioned waiting room near the VIP gate and new parcel rooms.