Revamped Chandigarh station expected to open in May 2025

Officials at the railway station said that the revamp work of Chandigarh station — that is being developed as a ‘world-class railway station’ — is going on in full swing and the complete project is likely to be thrown open to public in May 2025.

“One foot over bridge (FOB), two new buildings on both sides of the station and parking would be ready for use by February 2025,” the minister said, adding that “this railway station is strategically important, as it’s a gateway to Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana”. With a total cost of Rs 462 crore, the redeveloped railway station will have segregation of passengers — both arrivals and departures.

The revamp plan

As per the plan, it will have a G+3 station building (60m x 42m) on both Chandigarh and Panchkula side with 30 lifts, in all. There will be 10 escalators and two FOBs of 12-metre each.

For the unversed, in G+3, G refers to ground floor, while +3 indicates that there are 3 floors above the ground floor.

To make it easy for the public to park their vehicles (two-wheelers and four-wheelers), a 25,000 square metres parking area is being developed, officials said, adding that two 20-bed dormitories and 10 AC retiring rooms equipped with TV, heater and other facilities will also be provided to the passengers.

A proper space for food plaza, a 72m x 80m air concourse, and an air-conditioned restaurant will also be available. However, the concourse will take some more time to be completed, the officials said.

While interacting with the media, Bittu said that for Indian Railways “safety of passengers is of utmost priority, and so, keeping this in mind the ministry of railways has approved the installation of the latest version of its safety system, Kavach 4.0, on 10,000 locomotives”.

Kavach version 4.0 was approved by Research Design and Standard Organisation (RDSO), the standards setting organisation of the railways, on July 16, 2024. He said the ministry has also approved upgradation of Kavach 4.0 at all existing installations of the automatic train protection system.

The high-density (rail traffic) routes were first taken for deployment of Kavach on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes — around 3,000 route km (Rkm). These two routes will be completed within this financial year, while tenders have been invited for Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Chennai sections (9,000 Rkm). The first trial of Kavach 4.0 was done between Sawai Madopur to Kota section for 108 km on September 16 this year.

As on date, Kavach is deployed on 1,465 Rkm and 144 locomotives on South Central Railway, he said.

The minister said that in Northern Railways there are 1,790 Rkm work sanctioned for installation of Kavach, while in Punjab it’s on 121 Rkm, that is, Chandigarh-Dhulkot 33 Rkm and Ferozpur-Bathinda 88 Rkm.

6K spl trains for festival

The minister said that during the festival season of Durga Puja, Chat Puja, and Diwali, the Indian Railways will operate 6,000 special trains across the country, while there would be 161 trains with 2,882 trips originating and terminating in the Northern Railways.