Amrit Bharat Station Scheme: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to lay the foundation stone for 550 Amrit Bharat stations on February 26. These stations aim to enhance facilities by developing rooftop plazas and city centers, with an allocated budget of Rs 40,000 crore.
The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for approximately 1,500 road overbridges and underbridges across various states during a virtual event that will be broadcasted at over 2,000 railway stations. Officials stated on Wednesday that the Prime Minister will participate in the event via video conferencing.
During the event, prizes will also be distributed to approximately 50,000 school students who took part in speech, essay, and poetry writing contests on the theme "2047 - Viksit Bharat ki Railway," organized by the Indian Railways across 4,000 schools. Nearly four lakh students participated in various competitions, and divisional railway managers and senior railway officers will award around 50,000 prizes during the event.
About Amrit Bharat Station Scheme
The Amrit Bharat Station Scheme has been launched for the development of Railway stations on Indian Railways. Presently, the scheme envisages to take-up 1275 stations for upgradation and modernisation over the Indian Railway.
It involves the preparation of master plans and their implementation in phases to improve the amenities at the stations like improvement of station access, circulating areas, waiting halls, toilets, lift/escalators as necessary, cleanliness, free Wi-Fi, kiosks for local products through schemes like ‘One Station One Product’, better passenger information systems, Executive Lounges, nominated spaces for business meetings, landscaping and others keeping in view the necessity at each station.
The scheme also envisages improvement of buildings, integrating station with both sides of the city, multimodal integration, amenities for Divyangjans, sustainable and environment-friendly solutions, provision of ballastless tracks, ‘Roof Plazas’ as per necessity, phasing and feasibility and creation of city centres at the station in the long term.
To ensure smooth access, it also proposes widening of roads, removal of unwanted structures, properly designed signages, dedicated pedestrian pathways, well-planned parking areas and improved lighting.
The scheme envisages high-level platforms (760-840 millimetres) at all categories of stations. According to the scheme, the length of the platforms shall generally be 600 metres.
So far, 1,318 stations have been selected under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme based on proposals received from zonal railways and stations located in major cities and towns.
(With PTI inputs)
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