Coming up: malls at railway station

Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has announced world-class modern facilities with shopping malls, food plazas, underground parking, etc at railway stations in the metro and big cities and disclosed plans to set up agricultural outlets at 7,500 railway stations across India to boost agriculture and increased incomes for farmers.

At a meet of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Railways, which was held at Hotel Radisson in Goa, Lalu said that the Indian Railways will go for world-class facilities at railway stations across the country. The optimistic Lalu said, "We will shortly invite global tenders to build shopping malls, food plazas and underground parking."

He said that the Indian Railways will not rest on its laurels and the turnaround witnessed over the past two years. "With a profit of Rs 13,000 crore this financial year, the Indian Railways will achieve the surplus of Rs 20,000 crore by the next financial year," said Lalu confidently.

The minister further said that a dedicated freight corridor with computerised controls on the Ludhiana-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai route at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore will also come up.

Besides, a similar corridor will also be built between Mumbai-Chennai-Howrah in the second phase, connecting the country's major ports. "These corridors will not only meet the increasing demand for freight traffic, but also relieve the existing rail lines for more passenger traffic," he added.

On the agricultural outlets, the railway minister said, the 7,500 outlets will be set up near railway stations through public-private participation route. "These outlets will have all facilities, for collection, distribution and export of farm products to European countries. These outlets will be set up, right from Himachal Pradesh to Kanyakumari and Goa on the excess railway land," Lalu said.

Saying that accidents at railway crossings have been a burning issue for the Railways, he said some solution will be found at the next meeting of general managers of zonal railways and the state governments to see that maximum number of railway crossings are manned in the shortest possible time.

Across the country, there are 16,600 manned crossings, while the number for unmanned crossings was 18,297 A new locomotive factory in Bihar and a rail coach factory at Rae Bareily in Uttar Pradesh have been proposed to meet increasing traffic demand.

"These factories will not only help get more engines and coaches, but also generate employment," he added.

He said that a memorandum of understanding has been signed with the State Bank of India to set up 681 ATMs at various stations.