Tenders for redevelopment of Shivajinagar station soon: Suresh Prabhu

The IRSDCL website says that the state government had recently stated that railway land is not governed by the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MR&TP) Act, 1966. While the masterplan for redevelopment of Shivajinagar Railway Station was drawn up in 2013, work for the same is yet to start due to various legal and logistic problems.

Other than redevelopment of Shivajinagar Railway Station, Prabhu also announced that electrification of the Daund-Lonavala line would be completed by June 2016. “We plan to line EMUs on the line to provide better connectivity to commuters,” he said, adding that the third Pune-Lonavala track would also be speeded up.

Prabhu said that there are provisions for the Pune-Nashik railway line in the recently-announced railway budget, and work on it would commence soon. He also said that a Pune-Jodhpur weekly train would be announced later this year.

Speaking about the need of investments in the Railways, the minister said that the present government is focusing on revamping both the internal and external functioning of the department.

As part of the revamp, major works for increasing railway network is being undertaken. In terms of services, Prabhu announced that automatic laundry services for washing linen would be taken up across the country. “We are also working on allowing mobile-based booking and cancellation,” he said.

The railways had already announced the formation of joint venture companies with various state governments including Maharashtra. Under this, the Railways would take up various projects under public-private partnership. The new FOB at Pune station has been constructed at a cost of Rs 1.90 crore, and Prabhu said that escalators would be fitted later.